Dark Oracle: A Night That One Would Not Forget
by themadanimeotaku
Summary: One out of Five Stories of the Dark Oracle Chronicles Series. A NejiXTen Fanfic. Tenten returns to Konoha from a long mission and ends up spending a passionate night with the man she always wanted to be with. Lot of Fluffiness and action in this story.
1. Prologue

**Warning Heavy Lemon In This Chapter, read at your own risk.

* * *

****Prologue:**

6 years into the future, the war with Orochimaru and Akatsuki has finally been over for more then 2 years. The last of the Uchiha has returned to his rightful village, everything seems right so far. A certain few certainly were more then happy that peace had finally been brought to the Shinobi world, thanks to the Village of the Hidden Leaf.

Even though there was peace, there were still quite a lot of missions to do for everyone. Including one of the members of a certain cell, that had never stopped being a cell really, that was the thing about being on a team since becoming all Genin, you never once stopped working as a team, even if you all reached the rank of Jounin.

For a certain Kunoichi, who was travelling back with a particularly valuable scroll, for her village, she couldn't wait to get back to a certain someone there. She had travelled from the Land of Water with this scroll; she had also been chased by enemy Shinobi of the Mist village, some of the injuries that could be seen on the girl's face and arms was only some of the many things the girl had been put through.

You ask, who this Kunoichi maybe? Well I could just come out and say it, but perhaps I will. The kunoichi was none other then Tenten, of Konohagakure, the great weapon mistress, and a certain someone's most precious person as well. Whose you ask once again? You shall find out.

Tenten mumbled to herself as she continued leaping from tree to tree, "I know it's late, I don't know if I'll be able to make it directly to my apartment building, I'm so exhausted…" Her keen chocolate brown eyes continued to look back and forth behind her as she continued making a mad rush back to her village.

It was about midnight by the time she did finally reach the far gate of Konohagakure. She stopped just under a tree that wasn't too far from the gate. The gate was closed at the moment, but that wouldn't stop Tenten from getting back into the village. Quickly throwing out hand signs for the Body Flicker Technique, she disappeared in a cloud of mist like smoke and reappeared on someone's rooftop.

_Damn it, I miscalculated, this isn't the same street I usually take to get to my apartment. _She thought to herself. She looked around and suddenly realized exactly where she was, and whose rooftop she was on. She bit her lip and wondered if she shouldn't see if he was home or not, I mean she practically had a feeling he had missed her.

A 23 year old Tenten stood crouched on the rooftop of probably the only man that did show any form of 'feelings' towards Panda Girl, as she tried to debate this.

* * *

A pair of sleepy ivory like eyes peered from out of a curtain of long, lovely god like soft dark brown hair, as the one who owned these eyes had heard the poofing sound of someone using a Body Flicker Technique on the roof of his small apartment. The ivory eyed one, sighed softly, he wondered who it had been that had disturbed his slumber.

He would punish whoever they were, in his own little way. Whom may you ask owns these eyes, these pupiless beautiful eyes as the owner slowly sat up in his bed, pursing his lips for a moment as he attempted to get up out of his bed? It was none other then Hyuuga Neji, the Hyuuga Clan's Genius Prodigy, and he had quite the look on his face at this moment.

Neji decided to see who the 'intruder' was by using Byakugan. He made a quick handseal and quietly called out in his mind, '_Byakugan!_' he didn't want whoever it was to know he was awake. He quietly peered upwards at the ceiling, with Byakugan activated. A small smirk appeared on the Hyuuga's lips, it was his precious person above. She had apparently returned.

He wondered what she was doing on his roof at this very moment. Then suddenly he could hear her jump off the roof, and by the sounds of it she was now near his window. He had a little evil plan playing in his mind, perhaps she had come to visit him, or at least to tell him that she had returned and all.

Quickly he got back into his bed and pretended to be asleep. He was going to play a little prank, well maybe not exactly a prank but he was definitely happy inside that she had survived her mission; he had been worried for the past few weeks about her, since she had left on an A rank mission that Tsunade had no choice in the matter but to send her on.

He hadn't gotten much time to talk to her before he himself, had left on an ANBU S ranked mission that required the Hyuuga man's 'expertise' in the matter. Of course Neji had managed to finish the mission quick enough, and had returned to Konohagakure as swiftly as he could.

'_Tonight I will make my claim, she will be mine…I've waited too long for the perfect moment…' _Thought a sleepy Neji, he wished she would hurry up and get in here. It had taken him a long time to figure out his emotions, when he finally was able to, the Hyuuga man had made a promise to himself, he would wait for the perfect time, to ask Tenten to be his, of course Neji and Tenten were just friends since their Genin days, but Neji had never wanted more out of his friendship then just that, he felt always comfortable around the girl, until probably now that is.

Lucky for him he had made sure to leave the window open to let the cool breeze into his room. He heard her voice whispering as he quickly hid his face in his hair, letting Byakugan deactivate as quickly as he could, he didn't want her to know he had been awake. He listened as he kept his eyes closed, to her voice; it was music to his ears, if you asked him,

* * *

"Neji…" She whispered. Tenten was on the window sill to his bedroom, she had been in a way glad he had moved out of the Hyuuga Mansion to pursue his own life. Though apparently Hiashi Hyuuga had not liked it that much, when his nephew 2 years ago had wanted to strike out on his own, after all Neji was an adult now, his Uncle had granted him the freedom, and even apparently told him he was allowed to come back to the Hyuuga complex when he needed to.

Tenten waited for a moment, as she stared into Neji's darkened room for a few minutes. "Neji…" She whispered a little louder for him to hear her. She was finally rewarded with a sleepy grunt. She blushed slightly as she recognized the grunt, as being of Neji's. She immediately hopped into his room and slowly took a few steps towards where the grunt had come from.

"Tenten…" She heard him speak sleepily, "What are…you doing here at this time of the night? You've returned from your mission?"

Tenten nodded her head, wondering if he could see her nodding, she attempted to stifle a yawn as she spoke, "Hai, gomen nasai Neji-Kun if I've wakened you from your sleep. I just wanted to make sure you knew I was back in town safely…"

Neji opened his ivory eyes slightly to slits as he stared at her through his hair, and slowly he sat up a little and reached out a hand and patted the side of his bed, "Come…sit down, I was merely about to sleep anyway."

Tenten blushed again and wondered if perhaps she should not stay too long, she had not really meant to wake him up after all. She was extremely exhausted though. Slowly she unstrapped her backpack and her large summoning scroll and placed them near the window sill. She quietly went to his bedside and sat down.

Neji was watching her with those beautiful eyes of his for a few moments before he closed them and asked, "Was the mission successful?"

Tenten nodded, and fiddled with her gloved hands for a moment, "It went okay, though I got pretty banged up during the whole stealing the scroll part, but I managed to loose them as I headed into one of the lands, they seemed to stop following me."

Apparently when one went to the Land of Mist, seeing it was a set of Islands, with one big continent of its own, one had to pass through one of the Lands on the return home, Tenten had passed through the Land of Sound to get back to Konohagakure.

Neji was listening quietly as he also was fighting an urge to do something, quite naughty at this moment to his former team mate. He was a very good listener indeed. He could see though she was very exhausted in her eyes.

Neji slipped a little more into his bed, as he reached out with his hand to touch her shoulder, to comfort her as she went into more detail about what she had been required to do on the mission. Once she was finished he watched her yawn a little.

Neji spoke in a soft tone, "Tenten…you are exhausted. Why don't you stay here until the morning? Your house is on the other side of the Village…" He was trying to show concern for his precious person. He hoped she would buy it.

Tenten blinked at Neji's offer to stay here for the night, it was true her house was on the other side of the village; she was way too tired to drag herself to her place. Perhaps she would take him up on his offer. She spoke up,

"Um…Neji-kun, you sure its okay, I mean I don't want to be a bother, I already disturbed your sleeping patterns." She was only trying to be polite. For some reason she wanted to be here though. She had always had these feelings for him over the years being on Team Gai. But she had done her best to hide her feelings for Neji, knowing that he probably would not return them, he had always been so icy towards even those of his team.

Neji gave her a small tired smile and grabbed her around her waist as he sat up a little and whispered into her ear, in a slight seductive tone, which sent shivers down her spine, "If I had been angered by your presence, I would have said so wouldn't have I? Besides…I think we should talk about something else…I've been wanting to finally tell you this…err I mean show you this."

Tenten went to look at him as if he was crazy and accidentally as she was about to turn to face him, she ended up locking lips totally by accident, or at least that was what she thought was the case, with Neji. His lips were so soft and warm, as she felt him attempting to kiss her back, even though she knew he was slightly shocked at first.

Tenten wanted to pull back but Neji refused to let her go, she felt his hands snake around her waist and pulled her closer into his arms as he also deepened the kiss. She gasped against his lips, "Nej...Neji…"

He pulled back and whispered into her ear, "Tenten, I've…always had feelings for you, I just never knew until now, that I cared so much for you…like I do now, please…tell me that I am not too late to make you mine?" He was confessing to her that he loved her, always had and always would.

It had taken him indeed this long to finally admit to his feelings for the woman, and he had hoped Tenten wasn't seeing anyone at the same time since he came to the conclusion of being smitten with her. He waited for her answer, which he did not have to wait too much longer for.

Tenten was in slight shock, and yet awe. He loved her? This was his way of saying he loved her? She tried to stifle a giggle; she did not wish to hurt his feelings. She then reached over and began to fiddle with a strand of his dark brown hair as she leaned over to whisper into his ear,

"Your not too late, Neji-kun…and I feel the same way as you do, I've always cared about you, always loved you." "I just thought, that I should burry my feelings deep inside of me, worried that something would come up, like your Uncle making a decision on who you would be with in the end when you, you know reached marrying age, or you ended up dying or something..." "I didn't want to say this to you in case that I would be heart broken in the end…"

This brought a small frown to the Prodigy's lips. Had he been that easy to read by this girl? He sighed; he had never really been friendly towards his fellow team mates in the past. He had regretted it as well, just as he had regretted hurting his cousin, Hinata in the Chuunin exams. It had disgusted him at times, also the way Hiashi had treated Hinata, and it was not her fault she was in a way weak, it had taken much private tutelage to aid his cousin into becoming strong like him.

And he had been rewarded with great results from his training of her. She was no longer shy nor meek, thanks in of course to him but also because Hinata had finally summoned the nerve to confess her feelings to Naruto, the loud mouth who had opened Neji's eyes and had saved him from his darkness. It made him shudder to think Hiashi would want him to marry his cousin, which was in a way, something that he would help Hinata in getting rid of that practice, once she became the Head of the Clan, which would be happening in the next month to come.

Neji began kissing along Tenten's jaw line after he came out of his reverie and smiled at her gently, "Tenten…you should have no reason to fear that I would reject you, there was no need of it. You are a beautiful woman, and I was a fool for being so cold hearted to you and the rest of our Team long ago." "I want to make up for all those years I was like that…"

Tenten blinked for a moment and then suddenly let out a sharp yet soft moan as Neji began to trail his tongue along the shell of her ear and down to her throat. Tenten loved his kisses on her neck as he was doing right now. She leaned against his hardened chest, which had been hardened from years of being a shinobi, trying to give him more access to her neck and ears.

Neji closed his eyes to half slits again as he began fondling her chest gently with one of his hands, while trying to keep her balanced in his lap with the other hand. She was indeed enjoying this a little too much. He began fumbling with the buttons of her black Chinese shirt she had decided to wear on her mission.

Tenten watched his hands attempt to do this, and she gently pushed them away, and began undoing them for him. Managing to finally remove all the buttons, she moved her hands to her sides to allow him to continue with whatever it was he had planned to do with her.

Neji smirked and nibbled on her jaw in thanks for what she did, moving the hand she had moved away from her chest, back to there, he realized she was not wearing a bra as he felt the soft tender flesh of her right breast. Also he noticed the bruises and small cuts on her arms, and shoulders, he would have to be gentle with her. Neji almost groaned this against her ear,

"Someone seems to not be wearing a bra tonight, I wonder why…" He had said this teasingly against her ear. This rewarded him with a small chuckle escaping from his beloved's lips. Neji began rubbing a hand along her breast, pinching her pert nipples every so often. Tenten bit back a moan, but it was getting harder for her to do this with the man she loved making her feel so good.

"Ne…Neji…" she whimpered as she began to squirm. Neji chuckled and said softly, just low enough for her to hear,

"What Tenten? Tell me what you want my heavenly one." He kissed her cheek and moved his hand to play with her other breast, before slipping his hands down her stomach and fiddling with the waist band of her dark green pants.

Tenten blushed at the cute nick name he had given her, her name had meant Heaven or in this case Heavenly, it was a beautiful nick name, and she would treasure it whenever he used it for her. She gasped when she felt something poking at her backside beneath her. It was Neji's erection, and he certainly was turned on by her squirming and her moans as he fondled her breasts. She tried to tell him exactly what she wanted, without being embarrassed; she was feeling very hot and flushed at the moment.

"I want…I want you…inside me…" She whimpered as she felt him bending his head down to kiss her shoulders as he slipped his fingers inside and passed the waist band of her pants, Tenten began to moan louder as she felt him touch her warm and aching core, she had also decided on her way back from the mission to forgo wearing underwear that day.

Neji chuckled and purred, "Impatient aren't we…" He then said, "I want to make sure you are prepared before I give you what you want…" He was being a tease, and this was indeed making her impatient to get on with this. She was feeling feverish, her entire body as he continued to rub her where he had his fingers at this moment. He heard her give out this one loud moan after about 10 minutes of rubbing her. He then immediately he pulled his hand out of her pants, to reveal it soaked in her own love juices.

Neji smirked softly and teasingly licked all of her juices off his hand right in front of her. This of course turned her on even more as she let out a moan of arousal. Tenten could feel him poking at her again and she blushed a slightly more crimson color as an idea suddenly popped in her head. Very aroused now from watching Neji licking his fingers of the evidence of her climax, she teasingly grinded her bottom against his erect self, this brought Neji to moan out loud and even begin to pant.

Tenten smirked and looked back at him, and said teasingly and in quite the lust-filled voice, "It's my turn now…to tease you Neji-Kun." She then turned herself so that she was facing him, and quickly she removed the rest of her clothing before beginning to kiss and nip at Neji's neck and shoulders. His skin was so soft to the touch, and was toned with scars from all of his previous battles of long ago. Yet this was the life of the shinobi, one did not always escape unscathed.

Neji let out a soft groan as he laid back to allow her more access and room to do with what she pleased, instead of him being the dominant one, he had in turn become the submissive person in this little 'fun' time. He watched through hazy lust filled eyes that had become slits due to how intense the pleasure she was giving to him. His body began to tremble ever so slightly as he felt her mouth go lower to his stomach, he reached down and removed the ties that kept her buns up, and this brought her dark chestnut hair flowing down around herself, like a halo. He began to stroke her soft hair, gasping as she had found a ticklish spot apparently on his stomach and began to squirm slightly.

"Tenten…stop…that tickles…" he said between clenched teeth as he continued to squirm a little as she continued kissing her beloved's stomach. Tenten giggled and looked up at him and said,

"I didn't know the Great Hyuuga Prodigy was actually ticklish…" She was teasing him again. Neji growled playfully and then suddenly he let out a loud moan as she came to his hardened length, which was straining very painfully inside of his boxers. He waited for her to continue, he was now being the impatient one it seemed. Tenten then with the help of him removed his boxers.

Tenten paused as she hovered just above his gorgeous manhood and wondered what she should do next, she knew she shouldn't wait too long, Neji needed by the look in his beautiful ivory eyes, that he needed release and soon. She then bent down and shyly kissed the tip of him, listening to his soft moan, his hands in her hair began to clench and tighten a little as she finally flicked her tongue against him; he tasted good that was for sure, before finally burying him entirely into her mouth.

Neji groaned loudly as he felt her warm mouth and tongue surrounding his length. He began to pant as he felt her begin to take him in and out of her mouth teasingly and slowly. He tried to control his moans, but it was just feeling so good at this moment. "Tenten…" He pleaded feeling himself on the verge of his climax, his stomach muscles began to clench tightly as he tried to hold back the on coming pleasure that was sure to burst free soon.

Tenten looked up at him and continued until Neji couldn't hold back anymore, he grabbed her and forced her mouth totally onto him as he came, letting out a contented grunt. He watched her face for a moment, at first he thought she had been disgusted but then she just closed her eyes and swallowed all of his love juices, she then pulled off him once he was hardened enough again and licked her lips to get whatever drops she had missed.

Neji watched her with half closed eyes as he attempted to regain his breathing and a small evil looking smirk appeared on his lips. He then after managing to regain enough of his breath, he grabbed for her hips and dragged her into his lap, he began to kiss her neck, and forcefully brought her down onto his manhood, after of course removing what other clothing she had been wearing. He groaned softly at this, she was tight, that was for sure, and warm.

Tenten cried out in slight pain, but mostly pleasure, Neji was indeed very impatient to get on with this. Tenten clutched at Neji's shoulders as she quickly wrapped them around her lover's neck, burying her head into his shoulder. Neji had stilled himself inside of her almost immediately perhaps when he had heard her cry out in pain. He had basically swiftly taken her virginity with that bold move, and it hurt, very much so.

"Gomen…Tenten…I never knew you were still a virgin." He whispered in apology into her ear, kissing the side of her face, trying to also kiss at her tears. He would wait until the pain went away before continuing. Tenten sobbed softly and nuzzled into his neck, for a moment or two before kissing his cheek and whispering,

"It's okay Neji…I should have warned you…I'm okay now if you want to start…" She moved her hips slightly to prove that she was indeed ready for the next step. Neji nodded and rubbing her back with one of his hands briefly, he grabbed for her hips once again and began to push himself slowly into her, starting a slow pace, just so she could get used to being invaded by his length.

Tenten moaned and dug her nails into his back carefully, as he continued to push into her, while straddling his hips, it felt so good what he was doing to her, she began to kiss his shoulders, his neck and jaw feverishly as he began to quicken his pace a little.

"Oh god…yes Neji! Yes!" she cried out, she was practically in tears, tears of joy and pleasure that is. Neji smirked and whispered huskily into her ear, after letting out a small groan of pleasure,

"Tell me what you want Tenten…hmmm…?" He thrusted slightly harder into her to emphasize what he said. Tenten moaned and blushed at his words, which were full of lust at this very moment. She attempted to respond between moans,

"I…I want you to go faster…please Neji-kun…!" Neji did as she had commanded and gripping her hips tighter, leaving almost red welts along her thighs and hips, he began to pick up his pace, bouncing her on top of him. He was beginning to feel his climax coming, but he was doing his best to hold back until his beloved came first, it was common courtesy it seemed, the woman should have as much fun as the man would when it came to this sort of thing.

Tenten was shrieking louder, thank goodness Neji lived alone, if he had been doing this in the Hyuuga complex, he would probably have the entire Clan bashing down his door, just to see what the commotion had been about. This brought a slight blush to his cheeks but he immediately went back to concentrating on bringing his lover as much pleasure as she was to him. Neji groaned slightly louder then he had, she was so deliciously tight and warm, he could not help it.

Tenten bit his shoulder as she tried to stifle her cries of pleasure a little; knowing the neighbours outside could probably hear her shouting out encouragement to Neji to keep on going. Tenten felt a tightening in her stomach and suddenly a flash of white light behind her eyes, she tossed her head back and let out a cry to practically the heavens as she came, part of the cry had something to do with Neji's name being used.

Neji felt her tightening more around his member, as her orgasm washed over her. He felt like he was going to loose his mind from the intense pleasure of her tightening around him. They both seemed to be enjoying this a lot, not just him. He then let out a breathless groan,

"Tenten…." He then picked up the pace until he was almost brutally going at in human speeds, before he finally at last came; he kissed her hard after calling out her name, this time more passionately as he spilt his seed into her welcoming womb.

He buried his head into the valley of her breasts as he held her, both trying to regain their breathing. He stilled his movement, just holding her in the position that they were in, panting heavily. Sweat glistened upon their bodies, seen by the moon light that had managed to creep into Neji's open window. Neji's ivory eyes closed as he nuzzled into her breasts a little.

After a few minutes of trying to gain control of their breath, Neji began to stir first, without opening his eyes; he removed himself from her, and laid her gently on the bed beside him, lying upon his back before finally opening his ivory eyes to stare into her beautiful chocolate brown pools that were her eyes.

She looked indeed satisfied from their encounter, he could read this, and something else in her eyes as well. He then closed his eyes again and pulled her against his muscled chest, resting his forehead against her soft hair, he murmured softly,

"Tenten…I Love you, I want you to be mine, and no one else's."

Tenten blushed at his words very slightly, which brought a warmth to her cheeks but she whispered back, "I love you too Neji-Kun…and I'm yours Neji, you should know that the moment we did this." She reached over to touch his bandaged forehead briefly which hid the curse mark of the Hyuuga clan that he had been branded with.

Neji stiffened slightly when he felt her move the bandage up, and then heard her gasp very softly before he felt her warm lips kiss the mark on his forehead. Neji blinked for a moment, and opened his eyes slightly to look at her, all he saw, was not disgust, nor sadness, but love in her eyes. At first he thought the one he would end up with, would be disgusted at seeing the Curse mark of the Hyuuga, that was why he tried to hide it from everyone, but it seemed Tenten was a different type of woman.

She would love him unconditionally, and Neji felt his heart soar slightly from this thought, he smiled back at her and kissed her forehead in return, reaching to stroke her beautiful dark brown hair, she was his now, and he would not let any other man have her.

"Tenten, stay with me tonight, please…" He asked her softly, as he continued stroking her hair, feeling her hands brush along his own dark hair as he waited for her to respond to him. He didn't have to wait very long, because she kissed him softly on the lips before saying,

"Of course Neji I'll stay with you…" She then stifled a yawn before burying her head into his chest. Feeling safe at last in his arms, he was so warm to the touch, she drifted off into slumber.

Neji smiled and before he himself fell asleep, he grabbed his dark midnight blue comforter and pulled it around their naked bodies and rested his head against hers before drifting off into slumber himself. He would dream of good things now. And his life would change for the better it would seem now that he had Tenten and they were in love now.


	2. The Loneliness At Last Strikes

**Chapter One: ****The Loneliness At Last Strikes**

That was certainly a night Tenten would never forget, ever since that night, she had decided she would live with Neji in his apartment, which he had discussed with her and hoped she would. She had never since then spent a night alone by herself; she always had Neji with her. They mostly had missions together, so it wasn't so bad, when it wasn't an ANBU ranked mission that Neji had to go alone on.

Neji loved her deeply; she knew this by the way he told her in words as well as in his touch and their love making. He was always so patient with her, and she also was patient with him. There were days though that he had to go and speak to the Head of the Clan whenever there was a clan gathering, which only Neji could attend, but he would always be able to come home right after.

Tenten was spending a day with Neji's cousin Hinata, Temari who had been visiting Konohagakure just to be with her fiancée, Shikamaru Nara, and Ino Yamanaka, Sakura having had to go on some mission or other. Neji was on a mission, and wouldn't be returning until tonight. That was the life of being a Black Ops ANBU captain; you could not help having to go on missions at the last moment, when suddenly she felt a pair of warm strong arms wrap around her and someone's warm mouth against her ear as she heard the person whisper,

"Did you miss me?" Tenten blinked in shock, she could hear Temari, Hinata and even Ino giggling about something. Tenten turned to see Neji dressed in his ANBU gear, his mask was off and hanging from his belt, behind Tenten, who were all sitting in some random public place, talking about previous missions and what ever kunoichis did with their spare time. Tenten turned and jabbed him playfully in the stomach and said as she turned to give him a kiss on his nose,

"Of course I missed you Neji!" She giggled as he grunted a little at being jabbed in the stomach and then his nose being kissed. When the two of them looked back at the other girls, Tenten had to fight off a giggle, when she saw how shocked the three girls were to see Neji being so affectionate, well not really shocked for Temari who was just a bit surprised.

Hinata especially was shocked, due in part to that she had never seen Neji show any sort of public display of affection before, nor usually see him smiling as much. He used to be cold to everyone around him after all. She spoke up first,

"Hello Neji-nii-san." She was actually talking normally, seeing she had managed to break herself out of her habit of stuttering when she was even among people that were not strangers to her. Neji turned to look at Hinata briefly and he stiffly bowed a little.

"Hello Hinata-Chan." He forwent calling her Hinata-sama due to the fact they were in front of two people who weren't Hyuugas after all. He turned to look at Ino and Temari, "Hello Temari-san and Ino…" He became his usual stoic self once again. But he turned to speak to Tenten,

"Tenten, I'll see you later; I have to report to the Hokage about the mission." This was code word that he wanted her to be at home as soon as he could finish up with the Hokage. Their relationship was blossoming into something very deep these days.

"Okay Neji I'll see you later then." Said Tenten cheerily, giggling to herself as he kissed her cheek, before placing his ANBU mask back onto his face and headed off in the direction of the Hokage office. She turned to see the three of them gawking at her, Ino being the Queen of Gossip spoke up,

"So how long has it been going on for, I've never seen Neji so happy in my entire life, he was like the King of the North Pole for crying out loud, and don't leave out the details." Tenten began blushing; she then heard her best friend, Temari, just huff for a moment and shake her head. Temari wasn't one for gossip. Hinata was probably the only other person who knew Neji was seeing Tenten now, since the night Tenten returned that wonderful night from her A ranked mission, so she remained quiet at the moment.

"We've been seeing each other for at least a month now, I think…I kind of lost track of the days." Tenten said blushing even more as she watched Ino start having little giggling fits. Tenten shook her head and giggled and looked towards Temari had asked,

"So how's Shikamaru doing these days Temari, still being lazy?" She always teased Temari about Shikamaru. She watched as Temari chuckled and smiled towards Tenten,

"Nah I managed to break him of that habit of his finally, I always manage to 'motivate' him to doing things with me." She gave the others a smirk. Tenten bursted out in a fit of giggles, she knew what Temari meant by 'motivation' either she deprived him probably of sex or just beat the hell out of him, that was usually what Temari meant. And Temari probably knew that Shikamaru couldn't live without sex, no matter how 'troublesome' the act was to him.

Tenten then turned to Hinata, "Hinata-Chan, how's Naruto-Kun been doing ever, opps sorry I meant Naruto-Sama been doing these days?" Naruto had become Hokage like the loud mouth fox boy had always vowed he would become. Tenten and even Neji could not believe that he would finally do this; it had been a year to two years ago, and that also Sasuke Uchiha had returned to the village, much to everyone's shock and yet in a way they were glad he had returned.

Hinata began twiddling with her fingers as she blushed a little and said in her normal like voice, "He…and I are doing good, he's so busy with his Hokage duties, and I have to deal with my own duties as the Head of my Clan now…" Tenten had almost forgotten that Hinata had become the head of her Clan, and Hiashi was now the head of the Elders of the Hyuuga Clan, Hiashi had decided he would keep an eye on his daughter while she was the Head of the Clan; he had also come to the conclusion that his daughter was strong enough to lead their Clan.

One of the acts Hinata had done was to burn the scroll that contained the Curse Mark's secret information to activate it, and no one was ever to use that jutsu on anyone on pain of death. Neji had certainly been happy about this; hence probably why he seemed more affectionate to the one he loved as well, it was like a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

Tenten smiled at the Hyuuga woman, and said, "I'm sure Naruto-Sama will make sometime for you soon, Hinata-Chan." She watched the girl nod her head and then smiled at her. Tenten then turned to Ino who was chatting with Temari while Tenten was speaking to Hinata. She wanted to ask how Ino and Chouji were doing, but decided she had best get herself going before Neji had a conniption fit and got worried about his beloved.

She stood up slowly and stretched her aching muscles, "I better go, Neji wants me to go meet him at his place, see you guys later, I won't probably be back until next week, seeing the Rokudaime wants me to go on a mission with Lee and his fiancée, in 2 days."

The girls waved at her and Tenten quickly retreated to Neji's apartment building. She felt so happy for some reason, never being so happy in her life. She had everything possible; she had become a strong Kunoichi, in the eyes of Tsunade before she had stepped down as the Godaime and allowed Naruto to become Rokudaime Hokage, she had Neji who she had always wanted to be with since probably they became a Team, and she couldn't have asked for anything better. So far, life was good.

* * *

She got home just about 15 minutes before Neji did, and decided to wait for him by the door. She felt his presence before she saw him, and giggled as she watched him poof into the house, after using the Body Flicker Technique to get inside. She immediately wrapped her arms around his waist and said,

"Welcome back, Neji-Kun…" Neji was a little startled by this but quickly removed his ANBU mask and hugged her in return; a small smile appeared on his lips, even though he looked exhausted. He nuzzled his face into her hair and murmured into it,

"I missed you, Tenten; I have some good news and some bad news for the both of us." Tenten blinked when she heard him say this and pulled a little bit away from him to stare into his beautiful eyes for a few minutes, searching for something in them.

"Well go ahead and tell me the bad news first I guess." Said Tenten after giving him a kiss on the lips briefly, she waited for him to speak up. She didn't have to wait long,

"The Rokudaime is sending me on a 4 month mission to the Land of Lightning, apparently there have been some problems with the Raikage there, and they want me and my team to go there to figure out what's going on, and offer any help to the Godaime Raikage there." This brought a frown to the Hyuuga Prodigy's face and also an even sadder look into Tenten's chocolate brown eyes.

Tenten spoke in a dejected voice, "I see, well if there's problems, you have to go and deal with it Neji-Kun, it's for the best right, there might be a threat of war if we can't help the Raikage right?" She was just going to be obviously lonely for the next few months. She then suddenly felt his hands grab her chin, and she was made to look into his eyes.

"Tenten, I know that I won't see you for a long time, but I'll make you a promise, the day that I come back, I promise to make up for all those days that I wasn't at your side…" He then kissed her softly yet sweetly on the mouth to seal the deal, and even slightly grinded himself against her to prove what he meant by 'making' it up to her. He then pulled back and said,

"Now for the good news, I don't have to leave for a few days, so we can spend those days with each other, until you and I both have to leave on our respective missions…" Tenten was almost happy to hear those words; she practically curled her body around him as she jumped into his arms, and said seductively,

"Well good, then we better get to work…" She giggled after this as she heard him groan when she had wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his shoulders.

"Tenten, why must you insist on teasing me like this?" He purred into her ear, giving her a devastating smirk, one that he only gave to his enemies before he killed them. But in this case, it was a smirk that meant mischief was bound to happen.

"Because I love you, and I know it gets me anything I want out of you…" She said playfully pouting at him, before starting to nibble on his neck, giving him tiny kisses everywhere she could possibly find a place to put them. Neji chuckled at this and gasped softly; he then grabbed her chin and began passionately and roughly kissing her, right there in the hallway of their apartment.

Tenten moaned softly as he kissed her roughly and passionately like the way he was doing, she always enjoyed these kisses of his. She would miss him, but she knew he would come back alive and make up for all the many lonely nights that she would have until his return to Konohagakure.

Neji then pulled back and carried her into their room, kicking the door open, seeing Tenten had closed it on her way out to see the girls. He continued to kiss her as he brought them both into the room, and gently he laid Tenten down on their bed. He heard her protesting when she lost the warmth of his body briefly before Neji got onto the bed after removing his shoes, shirt and hitai-ate headband and laid on top of her, and continued to kiss her passionately with wild and silent abandon.

* * *

3 days later, and much to a tired looking Tenten, who had pretty much spent most of the last few days, with Neji, almost always in bed; only getting up when they had to talk to someone who came by the apartment or to eat. And she already missed him; they certainly had a lot of fun though. It had been one huge 2 and a half day sex escapade.

Tenten sighed depressively as she walked with her best friend Rock Lee and his fiancée Hyperia as they headed towards the site of their mission. They would be gone for a few days until probably the middle of next week. Lee had taken notice of his best friend and sister figure's depression and spoke up hyperly,

"Do not waste your youthfulness on mere tears Tenten-Chan, Neji will return…I know he will he is a genius after all." He gave her thumbs up and a small silly grin as well, trying to cheer his friend up.

Tenten looked at him and attempted to smile back at him and shook her head, "Lee, how many times I have to tell you that I'll be fine, and quit with the thumbs up sign thing you always do." She always found Lee so annoying at times, but he was always a good friend. She heard Hyperia giggling at her fiancée and Tenten looked towards the short girl and gave her a smile.

"Aww he's just worried about you Tenten-San, no need to get upset at him, he's always held you and Neji-San in high regard, at least that's what he told me." Tenten giggled and nodded as she gave Lee a noogie on his head as soon as he got close enough for her to reach over towards him.

"Yeah I guess your right Hyperia-Chan, I shouldn't be moping around, I mean he's right, Neji will be okay, I just…I guess I'm lonely."

"Gah! Tenten stop doing that!" shouted Lee as he had been placed in a head lock underneath Tenten's arm and was given a noogie, messing up his hair as she did this. His arms were flailing all over the place. This both made Tenten and Hyperia burst out laughing. Tenten dropped Lee after a few more minutes to the ground, which Lee immediately landed in a crouch.

He attempted to fix his hair and crossed his arms and pouted; "Now you're making fun of me." He said with a pout. Hyperia frowned and walked over to Lee and hugged him, pushing his face into basically her chest, and Tenten could hear Hyperia say,

"It's okay Lee-San, it's all in fun, and at least you made Tenten-San smile right?" Lee relaxed a little as he felt Hyperia hug him and he nodded his head and leaned up and kissed Hyperia sweetly on the cheek.

"My beloved Stone Blossom is correct, I finally managed to get my beautiful Konoha Blossom, to smile, and perhaps distract her from those thoughts of loneliness of hers, yosh!" shouted Lee with glee as he got up quickly to his feet. Tenten sighed a little. He had always referred her as his 'Konoha Blossom' since they were Genin; it was really just a friendly nickname he gave her. Tenten and Neji hadn't minded it; it was a nick name that had grown on Tenten to be honest.

She then watched comically as Lee started bouncing all over the place, and Hyperia was trying to get him to calm down. She had been glad Lee had found Hyperia as his soul mate, at first Tenten and even Neji had started worrying about him for awhile, he had been depressed for the longest time, and very distracted. Tenten giggled at Lee's antics, she was indeed starting to feel better.

She placed her ill thoughts of Neji not coming back to rest, for the time being. She had some things that had to get done, and that meant this mission. She could not let this distract her. Suddenly she felt a wave of nausea hit her, Tenten froze in her step for a moment. '_Why am I feeling so sick all of a sudden?'_' she thought to herself as she had paused, letting the others get ahead of her a little. '_It must be something I ate, probably that sushi last night; I knew I should have told Neji not to bother…_'

She waited a few minutes, before finally she was able to continue walking with her team she was currently with; brushing off the fact that it was just probably something indeed she had eaten that was causing the nausea.

Tenten called out, "Hey guys! Wait for me!" She quickly ran after them, shaking her head, they were so impatient it seemed to get this mission going. She couldn't wait to have Neji back in her arms. She quickly hurried up to try and catch up with her team.

* * *

A few days after chasing the rogue ninja they had been sent to go after, Tenten's nausea had not ceased since it started appearing. She felt so ill and felt sweaty and pale, she was pale, because Hyperia had mentioned this out loud when Tenten had run off into the bushes to throw up. She was also loosing her concentration because she would be hit with wave after wave of nausea every time she attempted to strike at the enemy with her projectile weapons.

"Lee-san, something is wrong with Tenten-San…my koi, I'm worried about her." Hyperia was hugging Rock Lee around his waist as they were waiting for Tenten to come back to their campsite that night.

"You are correct in that assumption, my lovely Hyperia, we should ask if she is alright, or perhaps we should mention this to the Rokudaime when we return to Konohagakure." Said Lee. He was concerned for his best friend's health after all; he had never seen her so ill, not since perhaps when she had been badly injured in her first attempt at the Chuunin exams, when she had faced off against Temari of the Sand.

Hyperia kissed his cheek after getting on her tiptoes, Lee immediately moved his head down to kiss her sweetly on the mouth, and yet gently, not even noticing that Tenten had come back and was looking even more ill then she had before, during their make out session.

Tenten looked up as she slumped against a tree trunk and sat there, watching the two she coughed, "Ahem! You guys should save that for when you get married…" She said teasingly, trying to crack a joke at them even though she felt like hell.

Lee and Hyperia both started blushing as they pulled back to look at the pale Tenten. Tenten began laughing, "I'm joking guys…" She smiled weakly at them as she attempted to rest against the tree, wondering why the hell this nausea continued to plague her. '_I better see Sakura whenever I get back to Konohagakure, thank Kami-sama that we are almost done this mission, I don't know how long I can take with being so sick all the time._'

Lee then finally popped the question, "Tenten, are you alright? You've been very ill since the mission begun." He had concern written on his face, Tenten was in a way glad she had friends like him around, always worried about her. Hyperia was watching Tenten as well as the two of them walked over to sit beside her.

"I actually don't know Lee, seriously, I've been ill since that day yeah, I thought it was food poisoning seeing me and Neji had sushi the night before he had to leave for his 4 month ANBU mission." "Usually sushi doesn't upset my stomach though." Said Tenten as she tried to explain when this all started happening really to her friends.

"Perhaps we should cancel the mission, it is obvious you need to see a medical Ninja Tenten-Chan, I am sure Naruto-sama will not mind if we bring you back to figure out what is troubling your stomach." Said Lee hyper like. Hyperia and Tenten both looked at Lee with shock and Hyperia said slightly hyper like,

"No way, we are close to catching this guy! There's a small village not far from here that has a medical ninjutsu using woman there, I'm sure she could find out what's making Tenten-San so ill." Hyperia knew a lot of the different smaller villages that dotted around the Hidden Leaf Village; after all she had been a nomadic ninja for most of her life since becoming a Genin and being exiled from Iwagakure.

"Guys, really I'm sure it's just food poisoning…" Suddenly a kunai blade came whizzing towards where Tenten had just had her head, and quickly Tenten got up to her feet and drew a kunai blade. Three to seven ninja suddenly came out of the bushes, in an attempt to ambush the three of them. Tenten frowned and immediately had to shout to her friends,

"You guys, take on those you can fight off…" She then quickly launched her kunai blade with deadly precision at the ninja coming towards her, at his throat, knocking the man down with a blood gargling yell. At least her accuracy hadn't been messed up. She glared as she was attacked by another ninja, and quickly ducked a kick as she watched from the corner of her eye as Lee and Hyperia did their own taijutsu attacks against the on rush of ninja.

Hyperia shouted something, "Man these guys are coming in bunches…" Tenten had to agree with her friend and quickly she felt something strike at the back of Tenten's head. Tenten winced and collapsed to her knees. She tried to fight off unconsciousness as she heard her best friend shout out her name, and then heard her attacker's voice cry out in pain as Lee had used his Dynamic Entry technique against him.

Tenten then fell unconscious and felt someone's arms managing to catch her. All she could remember was Lee trying to call out to her before blackness swallowed her whole.

* * *

When Tenten awoke the next time, she felt a slight pain in her head and she felt sick to her stomach still. '_Where am I? I feel like I was hit with a hammer or something…what happened to me?_' Suddenly she heard someone burst out shouting almost,

"Tenten! Your back among the living, thank kami-sama!" Tenten blinked her chocolate brown eyes and looked over to see her best friend standing there. Hyperia was in a chair on the other side of the room dozing no doubt. Tenten then finally managed to croak out,

"Lee, don't be so hyper…and stop shouting, my head hurts…" Suddenly she heard another voice, this from an elderly woman, "Your lucky that those enemies manage to only knock your head around, if they had gone through what they had been planning to do, as your partner explained, you might not have been able to hear about the good news."

Tenten blinked as she suddenly sat up and winced and held her head in pain, "Ow…they really hit me hard in the head…" She said softly as she continued to wince a little, she then wondered what the woman meant by good 'news'. She then turned to Lee for a moment and asked,

"Who is she?" Lee quickly spoke, "Her name is Kitana she once belonged to one of the Villages that was wiped out in many of the great Shinobi Wars 50 years ago, apparently she knows Hyperia, and can be trusted…" He gave Tenten the thumbs up sign again. Tenten began sweat dropping a little as she watched him do this. If she hadn't just finally woken up from being hit in the head with a blunt object, she probably would be bonking Lee over the head with her fist.

The elderly lady then spoke, "Lee-San, you should take Hyperia to the other room, she still needs to recover from using all that chakra to protect your friend here, I'll give Tenten-San the news that's she's probably wish to know and figure out why she has been feeling the way she has."

Lee then nodded and saluted Kitana before quickly walking over to his sleeping fiancée, picking her up bridal style and before leaving he said to Tenten, "Don't worry Tenten-Chan, your secret is safe with me for now." With that he left the room with the sleeping Hyperia. Did the old woman already tell Lee and Hyperia what was wrong with her? No wonder Lee seemed so excited that she had finally woken up.

Tenten then turned to the elderly woman and spoke, "Arigatou Kitana Obaa-San, I owe you for helping me and my friends recover from our ordeal, um…what do you mean by good news? Did Lee tell you already that I've been feeling ill for the last few days?" She was very curious and yet scared to know what was causing her to be so sick, she knew this was not food poisoning if it had caused Lee to be so excited.

"Yes, he did as soon as Hyperia and he brought your unconscious form to my little home here; you are very lucky indeed Tenten. I have to ask you something first. I know this is a personal question, but have you been with anyone in the past month or two? I mean had any sexual activities before you came this way?"

Tenten began to blush, the woman was trying to pry into her private life, but she knew the woman was a Medical ninja and was only trying to figure out the reasoning behind her mysterious illness. She also took note to herself, she had not had her period yet this month or before. Tenten quietly nodded, having been too embarrassed to answer with words. This was bringing her heart sickness back; she missed Neji so much right now.

"Well, whoever the man you were with, I hope he will be quite happy to know this…" Kitana said. Tenten wished the woman would just come out and say what was wrong with her already. '_Senile old woman, I wish she would hurry up and say it…_' thought an impatient and yet scared Tenten.

"What will make him happy? Please just say it Kitana Obaa-chan." Said an impatient Tenten. Kitana gave her a smile and said, "Well let's just say, that in about 7 months from now, you'll be having a little bundle of joy to call your own."

Tenten blinked in shock for a few moments, she…did she just say that…it couldn't be. Suddenly tears sprang to Tenten's eyes. '_How could…how could this have happened? I mean, Neji and I just started having a relationship…I don't think Neji would want a baby right now, with us being so busy with missions and his Clan probably wouldn't want him to marry me…even if Hinata is trying to change the ways of the Hyuuga Clan…_'

Tenten sobbed for a few moments, her body was shaking, and she didn't know whether to be happy or sad right now. She was carrying his child, Neji's and his alone. She wondered how he would react, would he be happy, Upset, angry? '_Why did you have to go on this damn mission Neji-Kun, I need you here at my side right now...I love you so much…_'

Tenten then whispered, "Um, can I be alone with my thoughts for now Kitana Obaa-Chan, thank you for telling me this, um how far a long did you say I was?" The old woman smiled at her before starting to leave, "You are about 2 months pregnant at this moment Tenten-san, and think nothing of it. I owed Hyperia a great debt, and this is one of the many ways I can help her pay back that debt, by helping her friends and those she cares about."

Once the old woman was gone, Tenten began punching her pillow, how could she have let him do this to her? Not that she wouldn't love the child, it was the consequences of being unwed and pregnant that were weighing in her mind. She couldn't exactly force Neji to marry her because of the child growing inside of her now, she loved him a lot, but it had taken him so long to gain his freedom from the Hyuuga Clan, she didn't want to weigh him down with the burden of her expecting the baby and all.

'_I_ _have to tell him, I have to, I just, I love him so much, and I don't want to loose him._' She thought wearily to herself. Suddenly she heard a soft knock on the door, and someone speaking,

"Tenten, can I come in?" It was Lee. Tenten sighed and sat up in her bed and wiped at her eyes, "Just a moment…Lee…I'm not presentable…" Suddenly she felt a wave of nausea coming on and quickly she got up and ran for the room's bathroom, and quickly threw up in the sink. A few minutes of throwing up, and then cleaning up, she headed back into her bed, and lay there, sweating and pale. "Okay come in Lee…" she called out.

Rock Lee came back into her room and looked at her concernedly and he leaned against the nearest wall, close enough to be near Tenten. A few moments of silence was made before Lee finally spoke,

"Whose is it?" He asked. He wanted to know who the baby belonged to. Lee was trying to act like a big brother to her, which it touched her, so deeply whenever he tried to do this for her. Tenten then said,

"It's Neji's; Lee…I thought you would know by now that me and Neji have been going out for almost 2 months now." Lee nodded and was quiet for a few minutes as he was thinking of probably ways to kick Neji's butt for leaving her pregnant and alone in a time like this. Lee then said calmly after 5 minutes of silence,

"How long will Neji be gone for? You said about 4 months, right? That would put you into what your 5th month of pregnancy or the beginning of your 6th?" Tenten nodded her head as she listened to him muse out loud what he was thinking. Lee then turned and looked at her again and walked over and took her hands in his and said,

"Tenten, you've always been like a sister to me, I will be at your side and help you get through this, Neji will have to be informed about this, and so will the Rokudaime." "Once he knows, I have only one request from you, make me the child's god father."

Tenten blinked in slight shock and surprise, Lee wanted to be hers and Neji's child's god father? She smiled sadly at him and nodded her head, and whispered softly, "Alright, I'll have to talk to Neji about this first, if you do then that will make Hyperia my child's god mother seeing you and her are getting married soon."

Lee nodded and gave her a genuine real smile, "Hai, I hope Neji will be back as soon as he can. I know how vital his mission is right now, but his child is just as important as this mission, and the safety of Konohagakure." "Tomorrow, Hyperia and I will wrap up this mission by ourselves, you need to rest for now Tenten, and please, don't worry about Neji so much, he will be alright, everything will be as good as new." He then gave her the nice guy pose, "That's a promise I know will happen." He finished and brushing his lips against Tenten's sweaty forehead, in a brotherly like kiss, he then walked out, letting Tenten get some rest.

Tenten would have to obey Lee; she knew that she could not risk getting hurt, for both hers and for the baby's sake. She felt so much better now that Lee had given her his speech. She prayed Lee was right, that Neji would be happy to know this. She fell into a comfortable sleep that was plagued with no nightmares just sweet dreams of being in Neji's arms once again.


	3. Chapter Two: Pregnancy and Hope

**Chapter Two: Pregnancy and Hope**

3 months pass by; the entire Leaf village had been informed of Tenten's pregnancy, all were shocked including Naruto who had to be informed first and the head of the Medic Corp second, who happened to be Sakura Haruno. All had wondered who the father of Tenten's baby was. Tenten had explained to those close to her that it was Neji's child and Neji was the only man she had allowed to touch her.

Her morning sickness had been hell but had slowly begun to disappear over time after she reached her 4th month of pregnancy. Tenten just felt tired and always seemed to want to eat a lot, which Sakura had explained to be normal for a pregnant woman to have cravings and be tired all the time. Tenten was enjoying at times the attention she was getting from the others.

Naruto had given her time off from Ninja missions until the baby was born at least, and probably by that time, Neji would be back from his mission that he was still on. When Tenten had reached her 5th month of pregnancy that was when all the pains and aches had started appearing. Tenten sighed as she waddled slightly down the street heading for a gathering the girls had decided to have for Tenten to help her cheer up.

She had a funny feeling, she was carrying a boy, being the only child of her parents, Tenten had been given advice from some of the older kunoichis who had children, Kurenai being one of them. Who had given birth to a son, who just happened to be the child of Asuma Sarutobi, before he had been killed by Akatsuki long ago. Kurenai had told her that it depended if you had heartburn or something of that sort. Usually when a woman was having a girl, the heartburn meant the child would be a girl because of the hair they would be born with. She did not want to really know the sex of her child; she would leave that up to fate to decide when the time for the birth came along.

'_As long as it's healthy and alive, I'm fine with that_.' Tenten thought to herself as she managed to reach Sakura's place finally. Temari, Hinata and Sakura had asked her to meet at Sakura's place. Ino had to go on a mission with Shino and a few others. Tenten gently knocked on the door to Sakura's house and waited for a few minutes before a pair of ivory eyes had answered the door, it was Hinata.

"Hello Tenten-Chan…" Said Hinata as she opened the door to let Tenten come in. Tenten gave Hinata a smile and a small hug as well. Hinata had been so kind to her since finding out about the up coming birth. Hinata had asked Tenten to stay with her until Neji had returned to Konohagakure at the Hyuuga Mansion, under her protection of course. At first Tenten had declined, but decided it was better then sleeping in a lonely apartment, hoping Neji was still alive.

"Hey Hinata-Chan, who's at the…Oh Hi Tenten!" Called Sakura as the pink haired girl walked by the door, holding a small tray of glasses and had been heading for the living room, "Come on in, Temari just got here a few moments before you."

Tenten huffed a little as she felt a sharp kick to her stomach come and go; the baby was kicking at the moment. She moved a hand immediately to her stomach and she began rubbing at the swell of her 5th month swollen belly as she walked into the living room, after removing her comfortable zori sandals, that she had decided to start wearing, seeing they were the only things that would fit comfortably with her swollen ankles. Another thing Tenten at times hated about being pregnant.

Temari looked over to her best friend and quickly got up and went to help Tenten to a comfortable chair, and a smirk appeared on her lips, "I got some good news for you Tenten, I just heard from Gaara before I came here from Sunagakure a few days ago." Said Temari quietly so only she would hear it. Tenten gave a nod and thanked the blonde kunoichi of the Sand for helping her to her seat.

Everyone seemed to want to always help Tenten, even though she wasn't as delicate as some thought she was. She was a kunoichi for crying out loud, but Tenten accepted the help anyway, because she didn't want to hurt her friends' feelings after all. Tenten sighed and attempted to place her swollen feet up on a small stool that had a pillow on it. Sakura had made sure to place it there so when Tenten arrived, she could sit in the comfortable chair and put her feet up.

Resting both her hands on her stomach she looked over to Sakura and Hinata as the two girls came back into the living room, Sakura smiling and Hinata was being her usual quiet self. She then turned to Temari and asked,

"So what's the good news you have for me Temari-San?" She wanted to know what it was indeed that Temari knew. Temari took a sip of her drink that she had been drinking for the past few minutes before Tenten had arrived and spoke,

"Gaara just got the news, that the ANBU team sent from Konohagakure just wrapped everything up and has arrived in Sunagakure to rest up, meaning Neji should be here in 3 days time, they showed up the night I left for Konohagakure, to come be with Shikamaru."

Tenten's eyes widened, she could not be anymore happier to hear this, "Did you…did you actually get to see Neji? Please tell me you did and that you didn't ruin the surprise…" She winced a little when she felt the baby again kick her hard. '_Your excited too, hmm little one, daddy will be home soon._' She thought inwardly to her unborn child.

"Yeah I saw him, and I told him that you love him and missed him terribly, I didn't say anything else, hopefully Gaara won't tell him, seeing I did tell Gaara and Kankuro about your pregnancy." "And by the way he's alright; apparently he had a broken arm, which can be quickly healed by a medical ninja." Said Temari as she looked towards Sakura and Hinata. Hinata was happy to know her cousin would be returning soon.

Tenten was nervous about seeing Neji now that she knew he was safe and sound and would be coming back soon to her. '_Neji please…for kami-sama's sake, I hope you will be happy with this baby and want it._' She said in prayer to herself. Tenten then turned to Hinata and said,

"Hinata-Chan, can you come walk me home after we are done here, and help me clean up Neji's apartment? I want him to have a clean place by the time he gets home, seeing it won't be long now until he does get home." Hinata nodded her head, and said, "Of course Tenten-Chan, I'll give you a hand…"

Tenten smiled, "Arigatou Hinata-Chan." They then had a few other interesting conversations until Temari had to leave and Sakura got called away from the house on an emergency that needed her attention at the hospital. So Tenten and Hinata headed over to Neji's apartment and Hinata gave Tenten some help cleaning and dusting the place and made it presentable.

Once Tenten was alone by the time 9 pm had come and gone, she was extremely exhausted, so placing on a beautiful maroon colored maternity nightgown that went down to just above her thighs, she slipped into bed, and immediately fell asleep on her side. Little did she know that Neji had decided to return a little more quickly then Temari had stated.

* * *

It had been a very hard and tiresome mission, but it had been worth the effort he had put into it. Neji Hyuuga was extremely glad he had managed to find out the problem and rid the Land of Lightning as fast as he could of the problems they had really been having. As he left Sunagakure to get back to Konohagakure as fast as he could, there was only one thing on his mind, and that was to get to his beloved Heavenly one as quickly as he could.

He had deeply missed her, and when Temari had told him Tenten had been worried sick about him all these months, he had told Temari to tell Tenten that he was fine, and would come home soon. And now he was, perched up on top of the west wall of Konohagakure peering down at the slumbering village. He had not been notified of Tenten's condition yet.

He was tired but happy, as he leapt off the wall and landed in a crouch with the help of a back flip, he could deal with the 3 and a half month long mission report later, right now he had a promise to keep, and that promise was waiting for him undoubtedly in his apartment, probably sleeping right now.

As Neji took off silently, still wearing his ANBU Peregrine falcon shaped mask, he wondered how she had been holding up. He knew she was probably aching to be held by him by now; he was aching to be in her arms as well, and to be able to smell her scent again. This had driven him to do well in the mission, which had taken him so long to be done with. Neji leapt over rooftops as he continued to head in the direction of his apartment building.

Reaching it in 10 minutes, he quietly noticed the window to his bedroom was opened, that meant she was indeed home. He would surprise her, by quietly entering the room through the window and snuggling into the bed beside her, that was what he was planning to do. He was extremely tired. His arm was feeling a little better since the medic ninja in Sunagakure had tend to it before he had hastily taken off ahead of his team. He had told them he wanted to head back to Konohagakure ahead of them; of course his team teased him that he really wanted to be with his woman, which had rewarded them all with an icy glare coming from the Hyuuga ANBU captain, which shut them up pretty fast.

He saw her form on the bed, covered by the same midnight blue comforter he had slept with the night he had claimed her as his all scarcely 5 or so months ago. Her back was to him, and thank goodness in a way also. He had so far not noticed the little surprise that would wait for him. Quickly he slipped into the bedroom and silently placed his gear down, removing his mask, and armour carefully; he stripped himself down to just his boxers and quietly snuck to the bed.

He stared down at her for a moment as he removed the throng that had held his long gorgeous hair in and let it flow down his back as he watched her sleep. She looked so adorable sleeping like that. '_I missed her so much, I'm glad she is safe and sound though…I don't know what I would have done if something had happened to her, and I wasn't there to stop it._' He thought to himself as he quietly got into the bed, slipping underneath the blanket and carefully he attempted to snuggle up to her back and laid his chin against her shoulder.

He whispered, "Tenten…" She moaned a little in her sleep as he called her name. He blinked for a moment and smirked to himself, she must have been tired from what ever activity she had to do today. He gently began kissing the shell of her ear, which made her shiver and suddenly rolled over to her back before rolling over to his side. What shocked him was the bump he could feel pushing almost against him.

Neji was indeed shocked, why was she…was she? He thought to himself. '_Why did no one tell me this…?_'' He thought in shock. He spoke up louder, "Tenten, wake up please…" His hand went immediately to her swollen stomach as he waited for her to wake up finally. Her beautiful chocolate brown eyes opened slowly until she saw someone in front of her.

He could feel something making a fluttering movement inside of her stomach when he had placed his hand to there. She was pregnant, that was the only thing he could think of why her stomach was like this. '_Whose could this be though?_' he thought slightly angry, had his beloved cheated on him while he had been away?

"Neji!" He heard her shriek almost in happiness as he also felt her arms go around him in a tight hug. Then suddenly he heard her groan a little, she sounded like she was in pain. Neji kissed her a little on the forehead and asked in a slightly angry tone of voice, and also between clenched teeth,

"Whose…is this Tenten?" He pointed to her stomach. Tenten took a moment to give him a passionate and yet very rough kiss that spoke of how much she loved and had missed him before she blinked her pretty brown eyes at him. His voice sounded angry when he had asked her such a silly question like that. She quickly responded, showing her love for him, though she was upset really.

"This…this is yours Neji…He's yours…" She felt sad at this moment. How could he think that she had cheated on him while he had been gone all these months? She felt like crying as she saw in his eyes he was angry and looked ready to call her a liar. She had been very faithful to Neji, never had she gone with any other man since finding out about the baby.

Neji watched her face with his ivory eyes, looking for anything that would say that she was lying, how could it be his? How far along was she anyway? He sat up in the bed, not wanting to touch her, just wanting to ask her the questions first before he would do anything else. He would ask her this right now,

"Tenten, how far along did they…they say you were?" Tears started to form at Tenten's eyes and began to pour down silently down her cheeks as she said in a trembling voice,

"About 5 months pregnant, when I found out I was about 2 months pregnant, around the same time you left for your mission Neji…4 days afterwards." She looked so miserable. Neji suddenly felt bad about treating her like this. He began doing calculations in his head as she said she was 5 months pregnant. That would mean he had gotten her pregnant perhaps the same night he had made his claim on her.

Neji then suddenly looked down at his pregnant lover and grabbed her and pulled her into his arms, kissing her forehead. He felt stupid; of course this was his child. How could he say it was not? The woman loved him so much, after all. He spoke softly in an attempt to comfort her,

"Tenten, this…this is wonderful news…I'm sorry I was just angry because I thought this was not mine, I believe you…" He listened to her as she sobbed loudly for awhile; she buried her head into his muscled chest, and cried. Neji frowned and sighed more. '_Neji you can be such a baka at times…you hurt the only woman that cared and loved you_.' Said his inner self to him, '_I know that, that's why I'm trying to make my amends to her right now…_' thought Neji angrily back to his inner self. He began to stroke her hair gently as her sobs became quiet until they were almost hiccups.

He then grabbed her chin and made her look at him, "Tenten, I love you…I was just shocked, no one told me about this, if the Rokudaime had sent a message to me, perhaps I would not have jumped to conclusions so fast." Inwardly his heart was indeed very much happy to know he would be a father soon. He continued to stroke her hair and then bent down and took her lips onto his and kissed her passionately yet softly, showing her that he did indeed love her.

'_I hope I can be a good father, like my own was…_' Thought Neji as he continued to kiss his beloved passionately before pulling away after Tenten returned the favour. A small smile appeared on her face as she spoke finally,

"So you are serious about this, you want this child then?" She wanted to know that he would love her and the baby unconditionally, as she loved him unconditionally, flaws and all. She watched him for a few moments conflict with something in his mind before she felt his hand start to trace circles on her swollen stomach with his hand; this was probably a sign that meant that he did want the baby.

"Of course I do my beloved Heavenly one, more then anything else." Said Neji, rewarding her with a genuine smile. Tenten then started crying again, but this time it was because she was happy, she felt a huge burden being lifted off her shoulders. She winced slightly as the baby started doing what felt like somersaults inside of her stomach.

"Ow, I think the baby agrees with you on that, or he's trying to say hello to his father." She said with a small chuckle and with one of her eyes opened, the other closed due to the pain she was feeling from the movements. This made Neji chuckle as he placed his hand and gently tapped her stomach with his fingers briefly.

Something came to his mind and he then turned to Tenten, "Tenten, there's something I have to do before we can continue being happy together, and that's to ask you this…" He had been planning and thinking about marrying Tenten for awhile since their relationship had started, they had been great friends for the longest time, so he had figured as soon as he returned from this mission he would propose to her.

"Tenten, um…will you marry me, I want you to marry me not because of the baby, well not just for that but because I love you so much, will you be my wife?" He hoped she wouldn't reject him, the baby had been a bonus to his future plans with Tenten, everything had calmed down since the big war with the Akatsuki and the remnants of the Sound Village and Rain Village, so now was probably the perfect time to start settling down for him anyway.

Tenten began to cry again, she nodded and whispered, "Of course I'll marry you Neji-Kun…I love you so much, you and the baby both." She then wrapped her arms around his neck and started kissing him passionately on the mouth to seal the pledge he had offered to make to her.

Neji closed his eyes and encircled his arms around her carefully and kissed her back just as passionately, his heart was racing at this moment, he was free to do what he wished, he was in love, and he would soon have his own child in a few months time from now. What more could he ask for then this?

After kissing for awhile, he pulled back and gently laid her on the bed and wrapped his arms around her waist and said, "We should go to sleep, you and the baby both need it, Tenten." He nuzzled into her neck and tried to stifle a yawn as he heard her speak,

"Okay Neji, I love you…sweet dreams my handsome man…" With that Tenten drifted off to sleep, happy to have Neji back in her arms safe and secure.

Neji smiled and kissed her cheek gently as he watched her sleep for awhile. "I love you too…my koi." He rested his head on her shoulder and suddenly he had a bad feeling something was going to threaten his happiness, he just had a very bad feeling indeed.

Neji then after a few moments, just shrugged it off and drifted into the land of dreams, dreaming of the future ahead, not really caring about the outside world for the moment, he was just happy to be with his beloved Tenten at last.

* * *

**Warning: Slight Lime/Lemon in this chapter somewhere

* * *

**A figure dressed in a silver hooded robe in the darkness began walking towards a certain area that already had two figures waiting for this one particular person. The figure looked to be that of a woman.

"Well what do you have for us, Meidia?" asked a voice that had cut the darkness' silence like a kunai knife through flesh. The silver robed figure made a sound that sounded like a sigh and immediately the figure spoke, in an indeed feminine voice,

"The target left Sunagakure before I had a chance to assassinate him there; he's going to pay for killing Ryoku. Plus it doesn't help that the entire Sand Village is guarded by one of the Nine Bijuu containers and by probably a gazillion high ranked Ninja." "He managed to get back to Konohagakure, so I say we strike there perhaps."

"Then you failed us again, Meidia, once again, why do we even put up with your constant failures if you can not simply remove one simple little ANBU Black Ops captain?" said another voice. The one called Meidia then suddenly shuddered as she felt shadowy like hands begin to touch her shoulders and her back.

"She still proves useful, because we have need of her skills in this operation…that is why my dear comrade…" Said the first voice, as a man with black and white streaked hair stepped into the moon light which had casted shadows and only illuminated the silver robed figure known as Meidia. The man had jade green eyes, and by the looks of it, he had a slashed Kumogakure (Village Hidden in the Clouds) hitai-ate, meaning he was a missing ninja from the Cloud Village, and was wearing orange robes instead of silver.

Meidia then spoke to the other voice, "I have something vital that might perhaps help us in getting our revenge on that ANBU Captain for killing Ryoku, apparently he has a girlfriend that's pregnant, maybe we could threaten her life or the child she's carrying right now, that would bring him to us." The woman had been obviously spying in Konohagakure to have found out about this little interesting information.

"Hmmm…indeed it could prove useful, good work Meidia, you will carry this plan out for us, and we shall do the rest." "You may go now Gan, there is no need for you to stick around, I will give her, her reward and punishment for both failing us, and for this very vital information." Said the man who had appeared beside Meidia.

If Meidia knew what her reward would be, she would gladly take it over her punishment. She listened as the other person who had been waiting for her disappeared suddenly and left her alone with the black and white streaked haired man next to her. Suddenly she was shoved against a tree very hard. She grunted out loud as she felt pain in her back, her hood had come off to reveal a snow white haired woman with beautiful maroon colored eyes standing there.

The man walked over to her and pinned her against the tree, leaning against her ear as he whispered into it,

"You did indeed do well, my Meidia, your reward will be what I plan to do with your body, your punishment will be determined later once I have come up with one, do you understand me?" The man's name was Kiran and perhaps the head of this little group as well. Meidia made a small moan as she felt his tongue flick against her ear gently, and apparently was Meidia's secret 'lover' also.

"Kiran-sama, please…forgive me for failing you, I will not fail in capturing this woman for you to do with as you please, I am your humble slave and will do anything else you desire…" She managed to say as she felt his mouth now go down to her delicate throat, and now his hands go down below her waist. She groaned in pleasure as she could feel his fingers suddenly penetrate through her dampened folds, she never wore underwear, this had been one of Kiran's orders in case he would ever do what he was doing to her now.

"Good…because if you fail this time, you will die, simple as that…my lovely Meidia, I was the one that found you and raised you in the arts of the Shinobi, I can take your pitiful life and existence away from you in a blink of an eye if you do not bring this girl to me." Whispered Kiran as he continued his ministrations for a few more minutes before removing his hand and mouth from her body.

He then replaced his fingers with his actual length after grabbing her legs and wrapping them around his waist; he then set a brutal pace and continued until the night's silence was broken once more with Meidia's cries of pleasure and his own grunt after about 20 minutes or so passed. Kiran was not one to prolong sex like some were, when he wanted it, he took it from Meidia whenever she was around, he had brutally made sure she knew that, when Meidia had become the age of 16. He had taken her under his wing when she had been 12 years old, and found in a despot little part of the Cloud Village that was the poorest part of Kumogakure.

He had no pity also for those that did not obey him, or failed in his eyes, another thing he had beaten into the girl that he had just had sex with. He opened his jade eyes and began kissing her softly on the mouth. For some reason deep in his heart, he loved Meidia, but he could not just come out and say it. He had an ambition to fulfill, and the first thing he would do, was kill those that had put a snare in his plans, one of them being that of a certain Hyuuga ANBU captain and the other being having the current Raikage's head on a silver platter.

He hated the policies of the current Raikage, who had wanted peace with the Wind and Fire Countries so badly, which with no wars, that meant those that had trained their entire lives for battles, their time and lives would go to waste. Kiran wanted to spill blood and chaos, he had not cared at all what the war with the Akatsuki had brutally taught all of the 5 Great Shinobi Nations that war separated everyone from their loved ones, and killed them as well.

Kiran watched as Meidia came down from her high and opened her eyes to stare at Kiran. Kiran carefully let Meidia to her feet, making sure she did not fall after this and quickly adjusted his clothing, placing himself back into his pants before turning his back to Meidia.

"Meidia, you have your orders, bring the captive to the Great Naruto Bridge in the Land of Waves when you are done, we will hold her for ransom…and go easy on the woman! We wouldn't want the little thing growing inside of her to die just yet." He said this with great malice in his voice; though it was true the child growing in the woman's stomach would prove to be a good pawn in negotiating with the one who had stuck his nose into his business and plans for a new future Kumogakure.

"Hai Kiran-Sama, I will not fail you this time, I vow the next time you see me, I will have your prize, and perhaps you will reward me with another night like this?" She had a small look of pleading in her eyes. She certainly enjoyed being with him.

Kiran chuckled and turned and grabbed her and wrapped his arms around her waist as he leaned his forehead against hers and said,

"Yes, you will have another night like this if you do as I say; now hurry up and get going." Meidia nodded and quickly after adjusting her clothing, took off into the night, heading back towards Konohagakure, on a mission of kidnapping origins.

Kiran sighed as he watched her go briefly before heading for the Land of Waves silently, he would indeed wait and see if the woman would keep to her word and actually do this for him. He started to orchestrate a few things in his mind, as he continued to walk towards the Land of Waves. Of course he would have to wait at the bridge for a few days. But what would he do when he had the prisoner in his grasp? This was a question he would wait to answer.

Perhaps he could start rumors that the organization behind the problems in Kumogakure was still alive and kicking, and even have Meidia meet the man half way, or even... A small evil smile began to play on his lips; perhaps he could have Meidia use the transformation jutsu and pretend to be the man's lover. But of course Meidia would have to be careful, the man could probably see through deceptions like this one.

Meidia would have to study how the woman acted, to play the part properly. Kiran would wait and see if Meidia succeeded in the kidnapping of the girl first, perhaps he could toy with the woman when she was in his grasp as well. Kiran paused in his step as he felt someone familiar coming up behind him,

"Yes Gan what is it?" he asked into the shadows. A man dressed in grey clothing came into his view, bowing his head, and quickly speaking,

"Kiran-sama, are you sure you can trust that woman again? She has failed way too many times in the past." Kiran growled at the man impatiently,

"She is on her final warning Gan, she will either succeed or she knows not to return to me, without bringing me that woman I have asked to have captured." "Now you will trust my judgement or I will kill you here where you stand, either way, I can not afford to loose more members of this Organization, we are already spread thin enough."

Gan bowed his head apologetically, "Gomen nasai Kiran-sama, I meant no disrespect in questioning your judgement…I will allow you to continue to have faith in the woman then." With this Gan quickly headed out of his sight before Kiran could say anything else. Gan was starting to get on his last nerve, perhaps it was soon time indeed to find a new member of his organization who could keep an eye on the Land of Earth.

"The Dark Oracle does not need idiots like him running this organization, if he can not do as he is told…" Muttered Kiran as he then continued on his journey towards the Great Naruto Bridge in the Land of Waves, an evil cackle once again broke the silence of the night.


	4. Chapter Three: Heartbreak and Chaos

**Chapter Three: Heartbreak and Chaos **

Tenten was indeed very extremely happy, with Neji back in Konohagakure, and soon she would get married right after she had recovered from the delivery of her child. That was what the plan would be; hopefully nothing bad would happen during the rest of her pregnancy that is. Tenten was also happy because she had been right all along; she was carrying a little boy.

Though she kept this from Neji, not wanting to ruin the surprise for him, she had asked Hinata secretly one day while Neji was out with the boys having a guy's day out, to see if the baby was doing alright, and by accident Hinata had revealed to her by using the Byakugan the sex of the child. Tenten was at first angry at Hinata, but then extremely happy. She had her days too though, when it came to her mood swings.

Neji had become accustomed to them, which Tenten always wondered how he could put up with her angry and depressed moods. He probably knew they were just being caused by the fluctuations of her hormones coursing through her body, as he had told her in one of the arguments that had broken out.

Tenten was at the training grounds, even though she wasn't supposed to be straining herself, practicing her kunai throwing. What sort of strain would just throwing a few kunai blades at targets do to harm the baby? It was good exercise in her eyes, she didn't want to really allow her legendary '100 deadly accuracy' to go to waste with being rusty for the entire 9 months of carrying her son.

She knew Sakura was going to give her hell for her throwing kunai blades and shuriken exercises. Sakura had told her though to do 'light' exercise, and not to go on any missions, which was making Tenten bored out of her mind and driving her crazy. That was why she was practicing her kunai throwing, without Sakura knowing. '_Bah what she doesn't know, won't freak her out, right?_'' She thought to herself as she continued throwing kunai blades for awhile.

"I simply recall, Haruno telling you to take it easy, did I not?" said a voice behind her as Tenten practiced. Tenten froze and turned her head to see a slightly pissed Neji standing there with his arms crossed at chest level. Tenten almost eeked out loud, '_Man, I'm busted now…' _She thought as she tried to come up with something to tell Neji.

"Neji, this is light exercise, it's not like I'm asking to spar with someone." Said Tenten, trying to be stubborn at the moment. She knew she could not resist that look he was giving her. He always did this whenever they had an argument about her eating habits or something or other.

Neji smirked a little and started walking over towards her, and said, "Yes, but still, she said no training, and that meant what you're doing is off limits, Tenten…do I have to tie you to the bed at home, just so I know you are safe and not risking the baby's health?" He was now beside her, his breath could be felt on the side of her neck.

Tenten shivered, and blushed at the thought of him doing that to her. That had certainly been a kinky thought. She would have to think about using that idea once she was able to have sex with Neji again, after the baby was born of course. Another thing she was not allowed to do while being pregnant, though she was at times constantly horny, and the only thing that she was allowed to do with Neji was pretty much using her fingers or his to please herself.

Tenten then said, "But…Neji…" She began to pout and tried to be stubborn again. She crossed her arms above her swollen stomach, barely wincing when she felt their son do a drop kick inside of her.

"No buts, Tenten, I will not have you risk loosing our child…" Said Neji sternly, he was only being concerned for her well being after all. He grabbed her and pulled her into his arms giving her arms a tight squeeze as he stared hard into her eyes, making her wish he hadn't had those damning beautiful ivory eyes, that made her heart melt and her knees weaken whenever she looked into them.

He then spoke, "Do you understand me? Haruno told the both of us, this pregnancy could be high risk if we aren't careful, I just don't want to loose you both…" He sounded like he was in pain. He had been having nightmares for the past week and a half since returning from the Mission to Kumogakure, nightmares of Tenten being covered in blood, lying dead on the ground.

Tenten frowned, and said softly, "What's wrong Neji, please tell me, usually you don't mind me doing some of my kunai throwing training…" She wanted to know what was really bothering him, throwing kunai blades wasn't exactly stressing her body; she was just exercising mostly her arms and fingers as well as her mind. She waited for him to respond to her.

Neji sighed and ran a hand tiredly through his long dark brown locks as he tried to form the words to say to her, "I'm just concerned, the mission I was on all this time, has made me worried about yours and our child's safety," He then placed both his hands lovingly on Tenten's stomach to emphasize what he meant as he continued,

"Tenten what if I was to tell you, I uncovered something that could bring about another war to this already torn world?" Tenten could see he was really scared, mostly and undoubtedly for the baby. Tenten frowned and said,

"What do you mean Neji-Kun, if you think there's a threat we should warn Naruto-sama." Neji quickly grabbed her roughly by the shoulders, and said, "I've already done that, Naruto thinks it's nothing to be a concern about, but he said that if it becomes more of a problem, he might have to call in the Konoha 11 to help deal with all of this."

Tenten was definitely worried now, she was apart of that group that had been formed long ago, when they had been young, but she couldn't do much with being pregnant at this moment. She then said softly,

"Neji, I want to help, if it is a problem, I'm apart of this group too…" Neji smiled a little as he heard her say this and said softly to her as he kissed her cheeks, "I Know you do, my koi, but not in your condition right now, right now myself and you have to worry about the little one coming, once our child is born, then you can fight to your heart's content. But right now, I will protect you and our child both from whatever this new threat is for the time being, I made this vow to you the moment I pledged my undying love to you Tenten."

Tenten smiled sadly at him, tears welling in the corners of her eyes, she didn't want to loose Neji, and she just couldn't bear to have to raise their son alone without him. She then said,

"Neji, there's something I want to tell you; I found out a few days ago, the baby's going to be a boy. I know this was supposed to be a surprise…" Suddenly she felt him hugging her as tightly as he possibly can without harming the baby, and then felt him giving her light kisses all over her face.

"This is even greater news, Tenten; it will indeed help my mind at ease a little, I had been putting much thought into names, since you told me you were pregnant." Said Neji, giving her a small grin. Tenten hugged him back carefully and nuzzled into his neck, breathing his scent, he smelt so good sometimes and also felt so lucky to have him in her arms as well as around to always be at her side. Whenever she needed him to be there for her, and she would always be there for him whenever he needed her in return.

"Neji can you take me home please, I think I need to have a nap soon, plus its getting late in the day." Asked Tenten in a whisper as she kissed his forehead. Neji complied and helping her carefully, he walked with her to their home, not even noticing or sensing that the entire time, the happy soon to be parents were being watched by a maroon eyed white haired kunoichi that certainly did not belong here in Konohagakure.

* * *

Meidia felt disgusted at how cutesy the happy couple was being, she wondered if this was the ANBU captain that her lord and Master, Kiran wanted to kidnap his girlfriend from. Meidia noticed the girl was the only 23 year old that was pregnant in the village, since her spying mission had begun here in Konohagakure. A small smirk played on the girl's lips as she watched them leave.

How was she supposed to though; get to the girl, with him always sticking around beside her? She would have to try and separate them both, which were the only logical conclusion. And a plan already was in her head, she would appear as a simple woman and attempt to make it look like Neji had cheated on Tenten while he had been away. That was an easy way to get the two of them to separate and of course to make her the most vulnerable.

First thing to do was send a secret message to Lord Kiran, then start orchestrating a perfect exact plan, the man was a Hyuuga. Meidia knew that he probably could see through deceptions with those freaky eyes she had heard so much about, so a transformation jutsu probably would be out of the question. She would probably just have to remove everything that marked her as an enemy ninja, probably also have to dye her hair with a temporary hair dye that could wash out as soon as she was away from him.

A small chuckle came out of the woman's delicate throat as she spoke to herself,

"Maybe I'll keep the Hyuuga as a little pet once I have gotten her out of the picture; he's certainly a handsome specimen. I'll wait and see what Lord Kiran wants to do with him first…maybe I'll have my way with him first before I let Lord Kiran kill him." "This plan has to come into careful timing also. I might have to wait at least a month or two to do this, I'll see…"

Meidia did some planning and then quickly pulled out a scroll and a bottle of ink and a paint brush and began to write a letter on the scroll, using the special ink to hide the message after the words were printed onto the also special chakra infused paper. Only Kiran's chakra could dispel the secret ink and paper to reveal the message. Kiran had been the one to create the ink and had the paper especially made.

Meidia finished what she had wanted to say to Kiran and began placing the ink and brush away and rolled up the scroll, tying it with a special maroon colored ribbon, so he knew who it was from, she then placed it down. She nipped her thumb and started making handseals, real quick ones.

She then called out, "Art of Summoning: Lightning Style: Dance of the Thunderhawk!" She then slammed her palm down and a poof of smoke came out of nowhere, to be replaced by a purple feathered, white eyed, demonic looking bird, which let out a shrill cry as it made its appearance. The bird flapped its wings as it waited for its master's command.

Meidia held out the scroll and pointed in a direction, "Take this to Master Kiran in the Land of Waves, and once you do bring this to him, you may go back to the Summoning World whence you came from, do not fail me my pet…" The bird immediately flew over towards Meidia and snatched the scroll between its taloned feet, and took off with a shrieking cry; leaving sparks everywhere in its wake as it flew off towards the Land of Waves.

A small evil like laugh bursted from Meidia's lips, soon her plan would bare fruit, she had a deep feeling about this would indeed work, and she would be very rewarded for succeeding. She was an evil mastermind just like her Master was, that was perhaps one of the reasons she had been chosen over so many other women in Kumogakure to be Kiran's concubine, his own little personal Concubine.

Quickly Meidia headed off to bring forth the start of a possible bloody battle that would ensue after this. Darkness and Doom would surround the Shinobi world, and crush all those that had opposed and dared to foil the plans of the Dark Oracle Society; she could feel it deep within her blood. Nothing would stop her Lord from achieving this, not even her victims that she was about to tear apart could.

* * *

Another month and a half passes by for the couple, everything seemed so far good, and Neji had gone on at least one or two small missions, which Naruto had no choice but to send him on. Neji had insisted that he be allowed to stay in the Village with the impending birth of his son drawing closer and closer. Naruto knew this but he also knew that he needed one of his top ANBU captains on these missions of importance, with a possible threat appearing from the murky depths of what some had called the Criminal Underworld.

Naruto had listened to Neji's concerns of the problem that had appeared in Kumogakure while Neji had been in that land to help the current Raikage to quell down a few rebels. Neji could not help but worry though, that something was about to happen, some of his friends agreed with him, including Temari. Konohagakure wasn't the only one having problems, Sunagakure and apparently also the Land of Mist was having similar problems with rebel ninja appearing out of nowhere, wanting the current Kage of the land's to step down as Leaders.

Naruto had decided to call a small private meeting with Neji, Tenten, Hinata and a few of the other Konoha 11 that managed to make it. Even though Tenten was not allowed to fight if a battle did break out, Naruto had wanted her to be there, as did Neji, so that she knew what was going on.

"Thanks for coming here guys…" Said a much more mature and older Naruto Uzumaki, he gave all his friends a sheepish grin. Kiba Inuzuka, Sakura, Sasuke, of course his fiancée Hinata, Rock Lee and Shikamaru had also come at his summons. The others were on missions to other places at the moment. Naruto was dressed in an orange and red flame Hokage robe, his blonde spiky hair that he had for ages, had grown out longer over the years.

"Okay, basically I called you here because there's a small problem that's been starting to arise in some of our Allies lands at the moment, I've been getting way too many requests for people from this Village to go and give them aid in quelling down all these stupid rebellions that are going on." Said Naruto as he scratched his head and sighed as he looked at a piece of paper as he tried to continue speaking,

"This apparently all started when I sent Neji on a mission to the Land of Lightning to help the Raikage there, deal with a simple problem, which has become a majorly bogus one now." "I want your guys' opinions before I decide to take a course of action." He had always valued all of his friend's opinions.

The Uchiha heir hmphed for a moment and said finally, as the others turned to look at him, "It's definitely starting to sound like there might be one big civil war happening in all of the Shinobi Nations pretty much if you ask me Rokudaime-sama." "I'd have to agree with Sasuke-Kun." Said Sakura who was standing next to Sasuke, her once big crush, and now just a good friend of hers.

"Man, what a drag, this is just a huge pain in the ass, we shouldn't have to help these guys all the time whenever there's a small problem like a rebellion, what can someone like us do?" said a certainly lazy older Shikamaru as he looked at the others before looking up at the ceiling.

Some of the others couldn't help but laugh at Shikamaru's statement, yet he held some truth to it in a way. Neji snorted a little to himself, he opened his eyes, having had them closed as he listened to the others talk,

"If it's such a pain in the ass, Shikamaru, then why did you bother to come to this meeting? This is a very serious threat, which could break out into a war of a very large quantity, if the current leaders are over thrown, peace will be no more, and we are already spread thin enough, we haven't fully recovered from our war with the Akatsuki and Sound Village, even if it has been 5 years."

Tenten was listening quietly to her beloved and agreed with him silently; she then heard Kiba and Lee speak up, Kiba first,

"For once I have to agree with the Hyuuga, he's got a very big point, I don't think we can afford to have to fight off a whole bunch of other Villages, especially if we loose our Alliance with the Sand if for some reason Gaara gets overthrown, which I doubt would happen, but it could…" The dog using Nin was being the smart one for once, instead of being loud and overbearing like he once had been in his youth.

"I agree with my once eternal rival, and I also agree with Kiba-San, my fiancée's homeland will be also in danger of a revolt, even though she vowed she would never return there, I fear she might have no choice but to take control of Iwagakure as the Tsuchikage. We can not afford to loose allies left, right and center, by letting whoever is orchestrating these revolts to simply go free. The big problem also, is that Konohagakure is stretched thin at this very moment." Said Lee as he stuck his pointing finger out in emphasize as he spoke.

Naruto, Neji and now even Tenten were shocked at Lee's speech; he never spoke so passionately about something like this. He had matured greatly over the years. Naruto spoke up,

"Bushy Brows, I never knew you could say something smart like that…" He was teasing his friend even at a stressful moment like this. This brought a chuckle from everyone, even though they were stressed. Rock Lee grumbled and said,

"I wish you would cease calling me that, Rokudaime-Sama. I merely am looking out for the safety of not just my fiancée but for everyone's as well, not to mention my future God child." Neji had agreed to let Lee be the god father of his son after Tenten had told him her promise to Lee. Neji and Tenten both chuckled or shook their heads as Lee and Naruto got into an argument.

The argument went on until Hinata chimed in, trying to get her future husband's attention,

"Um, the bottom line should be this, what do we plan on doing if a civil war does break out in Konohagakure? If we can not save our alliances from outside of the Land of Fire…?" said Hinata softly as she looked at all her friends.

"We won't let that happen, Hinata-Sama." Shouted Neji almost loudly, he would never let something like that happen here. He didn't care at this moment if he called Hinata by her title as the Head of his Clan. Tenten felt scared, she felt this was fate's way of punishing her and everyone that she cared and loved around her, for getting pregnant or something else. She could very well loose Neji if a civil war did break out.

Tenten listened as another argument ensued between all her friends and her fiancée. Tenten felt so stressed at this moment, she winced as she felt her son kicking her hard. She immediately placed her hand on her now 7 and a half month swollen stomach and began rubbing gently, trying to soothe her child. '_I know my little one, you don't want to loose daddy either, I don't know what to do, and I feel so helpless…I want to help but I just don't know how, not in my condition._' She thought to her unborn child.

She then suddenly shouted, "GUYS! ENOUGH WITH THE ARGUING!" She couldn't take seeing her friends always arguing. The entire room became quiet; all eyes peered towards her, including those of her beloved Neji's. Tenten took a cleansing breath,

"This fighting is stressing me out, I can't take this seeing you fighting, and this is exactly what is going on probably out there!!" She said passionately as she pointed a finger out at the window, everyone remained quiet as she continued to speak. No one dared to say anything while a very upset and hormonal pregnant Tenten was trying to talk,

"This is probably why the Akatsuki tried to wipe us all out long ago, haven't we been taught a lesson by that war? We lost a lot of people we cared about, Naruto-Sama, you lost your sensei Jiraiya, Shikamaru you and your team lost your sensei also to the Akatsuki, Hinata, and Kiba your sensei lost her beloved one and the father of her child."

"I almost lost my life to one of them also when we had to go save Gaara, if it hadn't been for Neji saving me from that Water Prison Technique, I wouldn't be standing here 7 and a half months pregnant, none of us would if we hadn't stuck together through that war, it's friendship and compassion we have to show to our allies' people, they probably hate the way their leaders are treating them, we have to tell their Leaders, that only through compassion and a love for their people can they get Loyalty I guess from them, like we have here in Konohagakure." "It's not just the Hokage's duty to want to care and love all the people of the village, it's all of the Shinobi also who have to have a love for the people, I think the third Hokage has taught us this long ago."

Tenten finished what she had to say and decided to walk out of the office, without another word, she probably had made herself look stupid, but she didn't care, she wondered if her words had struck home. '_I hope I got through to them, little one, because I feel like I made an ass out of myself in that room._' She thought inwardly to her unborn one who had managed to settle down on the kicking and moving. Tenten waited outside for everyone to come out of the room after the meeting was done.

* * *

The entire room was almost in shocked silence, only to be broken by Naruto speaking,

"Whoa, that was some very huge speech, I mean, some of her words, they really struck home." Everyone agreed with their own sounds of agreement. Neji spoke up as he crossed his arms,

"She knows as much as everyone probably knows that this will turn into another war like the one with Akatsuki if we don't help the other Shinobi Nations, she is tired of having to fight wars that can simply be stopped by making peace with their people and with others." "Even if she is my fiancée, I agree with her wholeheartedly. I grow weary of having to fight all the time, even if we were born to be shinobi, wars can take too much of a toll on the soul as well as on a person's physical body."

Kiba scratched his chin with one of his long fingernails as he spoke, "Yeah, so I guess it's up to Rokudaime-sama what we do then, we should try to give the other villages advice on how to prevent these revolts, and if it doesn't help, then we give what aid we can right? It's in the alliance treaties we signed the day we managed to wipe Akatsuki off the face of the Earth."

Hinata walked over to Naruto and rested her head on his own and waited for Naruto to speak, who at the moment was having a conflict with his inner self it seemed, either that or with the Kyuubi locked inside of him. Naruto then sighed,

"I guess we have no choice, I'll have to wait for the others to show up, but we have to do what we can to prevent the entire Shinobi world from going up in a puff of smoke, I may not have cared a whole lot for some of the other Villages, but I can't allow Gaara's Village nor this one to end up in a huge war either."

"Neji, Sasuke, Sakura, Kiba, Rock Lee, and Shikamaru, I know this will put a strain on your personal lives, but I have to ask you to work twice as hard on the missions ahead. I'm going to have to grant aid to at least the Land of Lightning, Wind and Water for now, those Lands can not fall, they are apart of the 5 Great ones ttebyo!" "I'll send some Chuunin and other Jounins to deal with the other nations if they start getting trouble there too."

All of the others nodded as Naruto finished his speech. Neji knew Tenten was going to be upset with him having to leave probably on very important missions; he would have to make a compromise with Naruto about him staying close to the Land of Fire in case Tenten went into labour while he was away. Naruto then spoke up again after a few more minutes of silence,

"Your dismissed guys, Neji I want to talk to you before you go." Neji bowed his head and waited for the others to leave, all of them giving bows to their Hokage. Hinata took this moment to give her cousin and her beloved Naruto some time alone. Naruto let out a grunt of tiredness as he rubbed both sides of his forehead, as a headache started forming there apparently.

"Neji, I know Tenten's due in another month and a half, but I'm going to have to do my damnest to keep you here in the Land of Fire, but if I must, then I have no choice but to send you and your squad." "Sakura's already told me her pregnancy is almost becoming a high risk one, with the stress of you having to leave all the time, plus these damn fucking Villages… so I'm going to have to put you on reserves in case an emergency pops up and I have no choice but to send you…is this okay?" "Another thing, I want you to make sure you keep an eye on her, they might come after you for killing that guy of theirs…by targeting Tenten."

Neji nodded, "Hai, Hokage-sama, it is fine thank you, I pray we can put this to an end fast." Said Neji with a curt nod again to him. Naruto nodded and waved him off in dismissal. Neji quickly bowed his head and walked out of the office. Neji sighed as he rubbed his sore neck as he came out of the office.

Tenten was waiting for him against the wall. Neji immediately walked over and pressed a kiss to her cheek, showing the stress that was going through him at this very moment by that kiss. Tenten looked at him and said, "I heard everything since I left the room, Naruto-sama is trying to keep you here as best as he can because of the baby?"

Neji nodded quietly, "Hai, not just that though Tenten, he's worried that they might target you and our son to get to me, so that is why he's keeping me here, to guard you, and to protect me." "Though I really I should be out there more to deal with this threat. I am the one that discovered and figured out the source of the problem in the Land of Lightning, in the first place."

Tenten nodded as they began walking down the hallway and then outside. She grabbed Neji's hand and held it in hers as they walked. She gave him a smile, "I love you Neji…" she said, trying to relieve his stress by saying those three precious words to him.

Some of his stress did indeed melt as he pulled her into an embrace and murmured back to her, "I Love you too Tenten, both of you." He then pulled her into a passionate kiss for a few minutes before pulling away and continued to walk. Suddenly a voice shouted as they started walking back to their apartment after talking quietly about the entire ordeal and other non stressful things,

"DARLING there you are!" the voice came from behind Neji and Tenten, and the voice was female. Tenten and Neji both turned in confusion to see a dark haired woman with what looked to be maroon eyes walking over to Neji.

Tenten blinked and was shocked when suddenly the estranged woman pushed Tenten aside and practically glomped Neji right in front of Tenten. Tenten couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Oh Neji, my koi, I missed you so much, you can not believe how hard it was to find you 'ere…" said the woman as she suddenly kissed Neji straight on the mouth. Neji couldn't do anything, he was totally shocked and frozen to the spot, he had no clue to whom this woman was, and he didn't know her. He tried to speak, as he had no idea Tenten was starting to become upset at the entire scene.

"I don't know who you are Miss, but you have 5 seconds to get your hands off me…" hissed an angry Neji. "Oh come now, you can't remember someone who you shared a night with while being in the Land of Lightning?" said the woman with a slight pout to her lips.

This was indeed pissing off Tenten; suddenly she began storming off, tears pouring down her cheeks. Neji had cheated on her, this was the only obvious conclusion, all he had said to her was a lie, and he didn't love her truly. Suddenly she heard Neji's voice, "Tenten! Wait…!"

"No Neji…don't bother, you can stay with your little whore, as far as I'm concerned we are through!" shouted Tenten between soft sobs as she quickly took off from the scene, leaving a very upset and pissed off Neji and a satisfied Meidia in disguise.


	5. Chapter Four: The Dark Oracle Arises

**Warning: Another Lime/Lemon In Here Somewhere.

* * *

****Chapter Four: The Dark Oracle Arises**

'_How could I have let him bed me, and then have him go to the Land of Lightning and let him bed another woman while leaving me here in Konohagakure, pregnant with his baby?_'' Thought a very upset Tenten as she tried to get as far away from Neji as possible.

She managed to get to a small wooded area outside of the Village, and sank into her own despair as she slumped against a tree and began to sob, she had been betrayed. She could not trust anyone now. The man she thought she had loved all this time, had betrayed her, had lied through his teeth to her, and in the process had left her pregnant with his child.

'_My god I am an idiot, how could I…have let him, I should have known all this time…_' Suddenly she heard her name being called, "TENTEN!?!" the voice was that of Neji. As quickly as she could she got back to her feet, and continued into the forest. When she could not hear his voice anymore, she sat back down and let herself have a very good cry.

"I'm so sorry little one, I just can't believe your own father would cheat on me, I still love you…" She said between sobs as she began rubbing her swollen stomach with both her hands, she had to be strong for her child, she would have to raise it alone probably, she would definitely not allow Neji anywhere near her or the baby. He could not be trusted, and she knew this now. She had poured her heart and soul out to him, and he had repaid her in kind by doing this?

Suddenly she felt a gloved hand come around her mouth and another hand grab her around her neck in a headlock. Tenten's eyes widened as she tried to struggle. Apparently she couldn't as the hand around her mouth was coated with what looked to be a powdered sleeping poison. Tenten began to loose consciousness immediately, '_Neji…!'_ was the only thought she had as she collapsed into the arms of her assailant.

* * *

Neji glared icy daggers at the woman who had made him loose his beloved Tenten; he suddenly was boiling in anger, rage and pain, as his body began to shake. Neji then grabbed the stranger and slammed her with bruising force, against the nearest wall of a building, and shouted,

"HOW DARE YOU!?! Do you know what you did?! I lost the only woman that I loved because of your prank…are you HAPPY?!" He wanted to beat this woman to a pulp for making him loose Tenten and upsetting her. But he held back, he then quickly shoved the woman away and immediately went after Tenten, he couldn't let her think that he really had been unfaithful to her. He loved her, and he would make her see that he had been totally faithful to her.

He heard the woman try to talk to him, but he refused to listen to anymore of her deceitful lies or words. He didn't even hear the poofing sound of the Body Flicker behind him as he stomped off.

"TENTEN!" He shouted, looking everywhere in Konohagakure. He then made a handseal as he called out, "Byakugan!" His eyes changed quickly into his Kekkei Genkai as he then took to the roofs and began his search. He fought back tears as he could not find her anywhere after a few minutes of searching.

He suddenly saw one of his ANBU squad members and called down to them, "Hey Yakuio, can you give me a hand here?" He was desperate to find his pregnant fiancée; he felt nausea threaten to take over his stomach and his heart clench as Yakuio quickly answered back,

"Sure, what's going on Neji-Taichou?" The man who was known as simply Tiger's Claw when on duty immediately jumped up on the roof Neji was standing on and waited for his Captain to speak.

"My intended and I had a fight, and I am afraid she has taken off, and might be in danger, can you maybe gather the others in our squad and give me a hand finding her?" He hated to have to use the resources of the ANBU to help find his beloved Tenten, but Neji was desperate, though he was trying his hardest not to show it in front of his team member, plus something didn't smell right at all with this entire situation.

"No problem boss, I'm sure she's fine, I'll round them up and start searching." Said Tiger's Claw and immediately headed off in the direction of the others. Thank goodness Neji had been wearing his ANBU gear when he had decided to go to the meeting with the Hokage. He quickly grabbed his ANBU mask and placed it on and quickly headed for one of the gates of Konoha.

'_Please, kami-sama, please don't let anything happen to her, I don't know what will happen if something does…_' he pleaded silently to God that Tenten would be alright, and she would listen to reason when he found her.

* * *

"Falcon!" Shouted someone in the distance, as Neji continued his search outside of the Village, he had found footprints, which he knew were Tenten's, she had somehow managed to get outside of the village. Neji quickly took off in the direction of the voice. Suddenly Neji had to dodge a flying kunai knife that whizzed and missed his head just a few centimetres short.

Neji glared and before he could reactivate his Kekkei genkai to find out who had shot the Kunai blade at him, he saw something attached to the blade's handle. Neji looked at it for a moment before calling out to his team of ANBU, "EVERYONE assemble back here! I found something!" Almost immediately, Neji was surrounded with the rest of his ANBU squad.

Neji pulled the kunai blade out of the tree it had lodged into and then carefully untied the piece of parchment that had been stuck to it. It wasn't actually parchment but paper that had something written on it. Neji began to read it to himself,

The letter read like this:

'_To The ANBU Captain that Killed Ryoku:_

_We have your precious person, and we will kill her and the unborn child that grows inside of her womb if you do not comply with our demands. Our demands are simplistic, you will give your life up to us, and you will have your Hokage keep his nose out of our business in the Land of Lightning, an eye for an eye is all we want for the loss of Ryoku, and you are the one responsible for his death. _

_We wish to avoid blood shed and have no wish to kill a pregnant kunoichi, if you so do comply with our demands, you may come to the Land of Waves Great Naruto Bridge to make the trade off, you will come alone also, again we have no wish to kill the kunoichi. You have a month to comply with this letter, or we will be forced to take actions._

_Signed _

_Lord Kiran of the Dark Oracle Society.' _

Neji crushed the letter in the palm of his hand; his entire body was shaking now with rage. This had been a ploy, that woman, had been a diversion so that they could take Tenten from him, just because he had killed one of their members with the Divine punishment. '_They will pay for this, all of them! Tenten…I love you…I will come for you, I vow this…_' He thought angrily to the sky as he fought back his emotions and the thoughts that were rushing through his head at this very moment.

His team had read the letter when Neji had and the one called Viper spoke up, "Falcon-Taichou, we should report her kidnapping to Hokage-Sama, he will send a search party and bring her back." Neji shook his head and said as he tried to fight back a sob, bitterly at this,

"No, only I can get her back, anyone else that goes, her life would become forfeit, they want me; I was the one that killed their companion who had been the start of this whole ordeal with the Raikage." "It is I that must go and save her, alone. No one follows me, I will leave as soon as I can, and you can inform the Hokage all you want! I will go alone."

Without another word, Neji used the Body flicker Technique to disappear. He reappeared in his apartment and quickly Neji almost collapsed into sadness and dark depression, he knew something like this would happen. Why did they want to threaten those precious to him? He knew his weakness, was Tenten. They had figured out his weakness, and exploited it.

"I must remain calm, and collected, I can not let my emotions get in the way of bringing her back alive and safe." Said Neji to himself as he quickly got to his feet and began packing a small travel bag, he knew he would not return to Konohagakure without his precious Tenten alive and well. As soon as he packed what he needed, he quickly disappeared just as a knock came to his door; the persons, who had knocked, had been Naruto and Hinata.

* * *

Tenten awoke to find herself being carried on a strange flying creature's back, and she noticed that it was a giant bird that probably had been summoned by a ninja. Tenten noticed she had a cloth tied around her mouth so she could not speak. She winced as her head was still foggy and under the affects of the sleeping poison that her assailant, another thing she noticed also was that she was laying on her side, and her legs were tied up, but not her hands, how strange.

'_I have to get free and warn the Village, I can't let whoever has captured me to kill me or the baby…I won't let anyone hurt the baby!_'' thought Tenten fiercely as she tried to get to a sitting position, suddenly she cried out as she was struck by what appeared to be an energy barrier of some kind, like a prison type of jutsu. Tenten fell back onto her side, slight burns beginning to form on her bare arms, seeing she had been wearing a sleeveless maternity shirt and pants at the time of being kidnapped.

"I wouldn't try that again…Tenten of the hated Leaf Village…" said a female voice, "That barrier Jutsu is pretty handy for killing prisoners that are foolish enough to try to strike at it, that's why you probably noticed your hands, it's useless to escape my Chakra Prison Jutsu."

Tenten had to fight off the burning pain in her arms and the cramping pain in her stomach as she felt the baby shifting around. She winced and began whimpering a little. She tried to see who her assailant was, and figure out how she knew who she was. "Who…who are you?" She managed to croak out, as the pain alleviated a little in her womb, finally freeing her mouth from the cloth like muzzle.

"You may call me Meidia the Blade Dancer; I am Lord Kiran's concubine as well as one of his greatest kunoichis." Said the woman. "And where I am taking you, you will regret having been the lover of the man that killed our companion Ryoku." Tenten shuddered at the thought of this bitch being a concubine of the man that had obviously sent to Konohagakure not just to spy, but to exact revenge on her beloved Neji.

"Then your…you're the one that pretended to be…you tried to break me and him Up!?!" Tenten shouted angrily, this woman had posed as someone and pretended to be someone that Neji had, had sex with just to make Tenten angry enough to want to leave Neji. Tears began to spring to her eyes, '_Neji…I…I'm so, so…sorry for making you upset, I was foolish to believe this bitch's words over yours, I maybe too late though…_' thought Tenten as she cried silently for awhile.

"If I ever get out of here, I'll make you wish you hadn't messed with Konoha's Greatest Weapon's Mistress, they don't call my deadly skill '100 Accurate' for nothing! I never miss my target!" Shouted Tenten. She whimpered softly as she felt the baby kicking her again, as if agreeing with his mother's words. Tenten was deadly with any type of weapon that she was given. Give her a sword, and she could have an opponent on the ground either dead, or close to it within 5 minutes of fighting.

"I'm not scared of a stupid weakling kunoichi like you, so shut up and await your doom, you worthless nobody…" Shouted Meidia right back, fighting the urge to undo the prison barrier and beating Tenten to within an inch of her life. The girl was pissing her off, it was obvious.

Tenten smirked, "Just bring it; I ain't going to back down!" She shouted back. She was trying to be brave and buy some time, maybe Neji was trying to find her, she could only hope so. She had to remind herself that he probably still loved her, even though she had been a bitch to him, and thought he had indeed cheated on her. If she did indeed get out of here, she would make this woman regret ruining her happiness with Neji, she would turn Meidia into a living pin cushion.

She heard Meidia growl and just totally ignore her. Tenten had to be brave now; she would soon be in the enemies' territory. '_Neji…please hurry, I…I still love you, I hope your coming for both of us…I can't stop loving you, even if I was upset at you._' She cried silently to the ground below her in her thoughts.

* * *

Neji leapt over tree branch after tree branch as he headed for the Land of Waves, he knew he had been foolish to run after Tenten, he had thought with his heart and not his brain. That could get him and Tenten both killed if he wasn't careful.

'_Perhaps I should have asked for backup._' Thought Neji as he continued heading at a very fast pace towards his destination. Neji just tried to focus his attention on getting to the Land of Waves, and coming up with a plan to rescue Tenten before they could get a chance at killing her and his unborn son. '_Just hold on Tenten, for kami-sama's sake, just hold on…_' thought Neji as he continued to leap over tree branches every so often.

Suddenly he could hear his name being called, "NEJI!" Neji frowned as he turned slightly to look behind him; he stopped and landed on a tree branch, as he saw three figures coming his way. He almost immediately recognized them.

Dressed in their ANBU gear, Sasuke and Sakura, and his old team mate, Rock Lee in his usual garish Green jumpsuit, and Jounin vest, had decided to be sent by the Rokudaime to give Neji backup. Neji frowned as he stood there in a crouch as the three of them landed on a tree branch just below the tree he was on, Neji spoke,

"What are you doing here, Uchiha, Haruno, and Lee? I thought I told them to tell the Rokudaime I have to go alone for this."

"And leave you with all the fun, ha, what kind of friends would we be Neji?" said Sasuke with a smirk on his face. He obviously loved killing enemies, especially those who hurt his friends and comrades. Sakura piped up,

"Rokudaime-sama sent me because of my medical knowledge, plus you need the help in case you get injured or Tenten-Chan does, she's my friend too Neji, I want to help her. What she said back in Naruto's office struck me deeply too."

Neji could understand those two coming, but why had Lee volunteered also? Neji turned to him and spoke, "That still does not explain you being present Lee." He tried to be his usual stoic self.

"I came here, because I made a vow to Tenten, she is like my own sister, I vowed to make sure she and my future god child is safe and always protected. I can not allow her kidnappers to do away with her, my god child or my best friend either, Neji…we are also a team." Said Lee sternly. He had a fierce look in his eyes and on his goofy looking face as well. He wasn't just concerned for Tenten or his god child but for Neji as well.

Neji felt the stress starting to slowly drain, he should have known he could rely on them, his friends cared for his and Tenten's safety, and in a way it touched him. Neji sighed and said, "Fine, let's get going, I figured if I was to ask for back up, I'd asked you three anyway to come with me." "I assume the Rokudaime will send in other ANBU when he can spare more?" He said this as he quickly headed off in the direction of the Land of Waves.

"You kind of pissed Naruto off by running off like that, Neji, not that it wasn't a little hilarious to watch him stomping around his office, yelling for the three of us to go after you and give you back up." Said Sasuke with a smirk again plastered to his face. Immediately Neji heard a grunt as he was elbowed by Sakura. Neji chuckled a little, feeling the stress melt slightly away from his chest.

"I am sure he is cussing to every god there possibly is, right now." Said Neji, knowing Naruto, one of his other best friends, and certainly one of the most influential as well, he was indeed probably swearing more then a Hokage should be at this moment.

"'Fucking hell, you guys better fucking go get him back, or go be his back up or blah, blah, blah, ttebyo…'" said Sasuke comically repeating what Naruto had said to them. Sakura and even Neji could not help themselves as they all bursted out laughing at Sasuke's joke about their Hokage. Lee was laughing the hardest, it was so true how Naruto always acted, even if he had managed to grow up and be mature, he still had that rebel type of streak in him.

Neji tried to hide a small smile, Sasuke was probably trying to help Neji relax a little, by doing comical impressions of Naruto behind Naruto's back of course. '_Thank you Sasuke..._' he thought towards Sasuke as he continued to leap onto tree branches every so often, as they continued their journey to bring back his Tenten, '_My stress is already starting to go away, I can probably concentrate a little better now…_'

* * *

"Can't we just kill her now and be done with it?" Shouted Meidia to Kiran as the woman had managed to reach the Land of Waves and one of the many hideouts of the Dark Oracle Society in almost record timing, it had only taken a day by flight on her giant Lightning bird summon to get there.

Tenten had been immediately placed under the Temple of Nirvana Jutsu, which was a sleeping jutsu that placed the victim into a deep sleep, until someone could wake them up by either the proper way of releasing Genjutsu or by causing them enough pain to bring them out of it, when Meidia had arrived in their hideout.

"No, you can not kill her! She is important; we do not want to cause more bloodshed!" Shouted Kiran as he backhanded Meidia across the face, sending the woman across the room. Kiran turned when he heard a moan of pain escape from his prisoner's lips, which was now locked up in a cell, deep underground near the closest village and only village in the Land of Waves.

Kiran walked over to Tenten's side and touched her slight sweat drenched forehead for a moment. The Genjutsu was supposed to keep her asleep, perhaps the girl had just moaned in pain because of the child stirring inside of her womb. Kiran shook his head and then walked out of Tenten's cell and closed the door, locking it with a special seal. He then stormed over to Meidia and grabbed her by the scruff of her shirt and lifted her with ease to stare into her face angrily.

He had accidentally busted her lip open; blood was seen trailing down the corner of her mouth, as the girl cringed in front of her powerful Master. Kiran sighed, and leaned his face closer and kissed her gently, "You can't disobey my orders, my lovely Meidia, you did excellent in dividing these two, and bringing me the girl, he will come after her, or at least for the child. Hyuuga maybe monsters when it comes to showing their emotions, but they do have a heart at times." He tried to say soothingly as he let go of her shirt and instead hugged her tightly to him.

Meidia spoke, "Forgive me Lord Kiran, for my outburst, it did not belong there, you are right, this is the only way we can get revenge and continue your great plan to bring this Shinobi world to it's knees."

Kiran had to smile at how smart his little Concubine was; she knew exactly how to please and displease him it seemed. Kiran stroked her cheek and nodded, "Yes, now…go to my room, I will be there shortly, we will be having a guest soon, and that guest will never leave here ever again."

Meidia nodded, "Hai, Kiran-sama!" snapped the girl as she quickly headed up the stairs and out of the prison area. She was beginning to get worried that Kiran wanted Tenten more then he lead to say he did. Why else would he have captured her, if not to make her his? Had Meidia displeased her master that much, that he wanted someone to replace her?

Meidia frowned, and shook her head, of course not. He had raised her and had taken him under his wing to do his bidding. Yes she did fail once or twice, but that wouldn't make him hate her would it? She would have to wait and see what his intentions for Tenten were other then to use her as bait.

Kiran looked towards his prisoner's cell door for a few minutes, and pondered now that he had her, perhaps after killing her boyfriend, he would replace his useless current Concubine. He would see after everything was dealt with. Suddenly he felt someone behind him, and a smirk played on his lips.

"Yes…what is it Yashiro, come to tell me I should leave this place soon so that I do not get killed?" The man spoke up, "Yes, Kiran-Sama, those Konohagakure Shinobi are dangerous, especially the Hyuuga that you have obviously angered, allow me to be your body double, while you make your escape, the Dark Oracle Society can not survive without your leadership."

Kiran sighed, Yashiro…he was being a loyal servant to him; Kiran had to give him credit for that. Yashiro had been like a brother to him, always concerned for whenever something went wrong. Kiran then said,

"Yashiro, if I die, you will lead the Dark Oracle Society to our victory, I have trained you and groomed you for the position, I will be fine, I can take on a simple Hyuuga, I already studied their feared '360 Degree Vision' when I killed that Hyuuga kunoichi 3 years back. There is nothing to fear from them…you will simply take over if I do become overwhelmed and do by accident die, it is very simple indeed, my dear comrade."

The one called Yashiro sighed and bowed his head, "Yes Kiran-Sama, I will obey you then, long live the Dark Oracle Society and your will…milord." Said Yashiro half proudly and half defeated sounding. Kiran smirked and watched as the man left him alone. Kiran began walking up to his room, where is little Meidia was probably awaiting him.

Once he was there, he saw that she was indeed waiting for him, on his bed. Kiran removed his robe and the top half of his outfit and crawled into his bed and grabbed Meidia and pulled her close. He spoke to her against her ear as he began kissing her,

"Meidia, I want you to leave the Land of Waves and go to Kusagakure and hide there, become friends with the daimyo, use your feminine willies on him, I want you to gain his trust, this will make it easier for us to gain control of the Land of Grass that way, we can then over throw their daimyo easily."

"Yes Kiran-sama…" gasped Meidia as she began to squirm under his kissing of her ear. Kiran smirked and began his work on removing what clothing she was wearing carefully. Perhaps just for today he would prolong their 'session' a little, he probably would not see his precious Meidia for a long time after all, he would have to find someone else to vent his sexual frustrations on, when the need arose.

Kiran then began to kiss Meidia's neck and then her collarbone. He felt her wiggle underneath his body, and began to press himself closer to her thrashing body as he went even further down with his kissing. Taking one of her breasts into his mouth, his hands began wander down her thin body.

He took his time with her after a few extra minutes of prolonged foreplay before he grabbed her hips and buried himself deep into her and continued to pound into her until both were satiated and content with each other. Kiran laid himself gently against her sweat slickened nude body, panting and covered in his own sweat.

Meidia spoke up after a few minutes, "You never stop amazing me Kiran-sama…" She then wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a shy kiss on the mouth. Kiran smirked and returned the kiss and then decided to have another go at her. He whispered into her ear as he thrusted hard into her once again,

"I am not done just yet, my dear…" He purred softly as he listened to her cry out again. This round only lasted about 5 minutes before Kiran was spent and laying beside his now sleeping Concubine. Kiran slowly got up and cleaned himself up by taking a hot bath, allowing himself to soak in the warm water for awhile.

It always helped him think; he would perhaps instead keep Meidia here instead and send one of his other female kunoichis that served him to do the daimyo job or better yet, tempt the Kazekage of Sunagakure instead of the Leader of the Grass Village. Meidia probably had already revealed her face to the enemy, so if a Leaf Ninja were to visit their allies and see her there, then it would be disaster for the Dark Oracle Society.

'_Yes it is for the best, I will send Kaede instead of my stupid Concubine, who can't keep her mouth shut. I hope the Hyuuga kills her, I've grown tired of her._' And indeed he had grown sick and tired of the woman. She had become too needy, too much of a failure. He needed someone else to be at his side and someone who would do as he asked without any screw ups.

He immediately had Kaede come and present herself to him, even though he was in the bath, naked, the water and steam managed to hide his most private of places, as the dark magenta haired girl appeared in front of him. She wore her slashed Hitai-ate headband around the back of her head.

The kunoichi bowed her head, "What is it you wish for my God and Lord?" Kaede always treated him like a god of some sort it seemed. Kiran had to remind her constantly not to call him a god, oh not yet anyway. Kiran sighed and said in almost an annoyed tone,

"I wish you would stop calling me that Kaede-Chan, I have a mission for you, and it involves becoming close to one of our enemies…"

"Wherever my lord wishes me to go, I will go, and kill whoever it is for him." Said Kaede in a cold unemotional voice. Kiran liked her attitude, she was a lot better then his whiny Meidia that was for sure.

Kiran moved so he was closer to her and grabbed her chin, and stared deeply into her eyes,

"I want you to become close to the Kazekage of Sunagakure, his name is Gaara, you will pose as a Lady, which I know now the Village of Sunagakure is attempting to find the perfect mate for their Kazekage now that he is a full adult." "You will be that chosen girl, so you will have to be sure to be there when they make the choosing, now go and hurry up and get there. It will be easier to gain that Village's trust, and we can kill him when the time is right."

"Yes Kiran-sama, as you wish." Said Kaede who bowed her head again and quickly disappeared without another trace or sound, Kiran was indeed going to make his plans work by sending Kaede to deal with Gaara. No one could resist Kaede's charm, or the fact she was a beautiful singer, which was one of her personal assets, she could lull an enemy to sleep just by using her voice.

It had been said her Clan were once said to be of Siren blood, basically water like creatures that lulled their victims with their voices, to be killed and devoured. But in the case of Kaede's clan, it made their enemies easier to kill. Kiran always made sure most of his minions had valuable skills that he could use when he needed them.

"Do not fail me Kaede…" He whispered to the air, "You know the punishment for failure…" He then sunk back into the warm water to finish his bath. He knew Kaede would not fail him, she had been a particular favourite of his, and he had ways of making sure of her obedience. Kiran smirked to himself as he began to think of his dreams and plans for the future.

His entire organization, obeyed him without question, and Kiran was glad of this. Because if he did end up dying in this encounter, which was very unlikely, the next in line would make sure to continue on the Dark Oracle Society's ambitions and his will, even without him. With this in his mind, Kiran got up out of the bath and headed back to his room to sleep.


	6. Chapter Five: Battle of Hearts

**Chapter Five: Battle of Hearts**

Neji and the others had arrived a week after travelling across the Great Naruto Bridge in the Land of Waves. It was probably a week into Tenten's 8 month of pregnancy now, or at least Neji had thought this as he and the others started setting up their own little base camp in one of the small inns in the Village that the builder of the Great Naruto Bridge had lived in, along with his family. The Old man called Tazuna, had apparently died just recently, much to the sadness of Sakura who had remembered him pretty well.

Inari, who had grown up into becoming a strapping strong man had indeed remembered both Sasuke and Sakura, and had agreed to give Neji and the others a hand in finding the hidden base of operations here in Inari's village. Neji did not know Inari personally, so he had left Sakura and Sasuke to deal with the guy. Neji just attempted to keep to himself, fearing he might just break down and beat the crap out of the first person that ticked him off. No one ever threatened someone that Neji Hyuuga cared about, and got away with it.

Neji stood crouched in a nearby tree, his ivory-lavender eyes closed for the moment as he attempted to meditate, while his ANBU mask was on as well. He did not wish to be disturbed. He was also having problems meditating as he let out a sigh of frustration. He opened one of his eyes to look at the calm water in front of him. Nothing seemed to be helping him keep his focus. He could not give up though, no matter what.

He sensed someone's presence near by and spoke out, "Lee I thought I told everyone, I did not wish to be disturbed." He said this with slight agitation in his voice. He could feel his best friend pause in his step before he felt Lee's eyes on his own, Lee spoke up,

"Inari-Kun thinks he has found where this hidden enemy that took our Blossom away from us might be." Neji blinked a few moments before giving a slight nod, not speaking for a few minutes.

"Neji, myself, Sakura and Sasuke all are slightly worried, you have not been yourself since the kidnapping." Continued Rock Lee. Neji grunted and then said slightly angered,

"I have every right to be acting strange, I should have been more careful, I should have sensed a deception coming on sooner then later, Tenten would have not thought I cheated on her if I had been more careful!" "I may be too late as it is now, she probably will never forgive me, even if we can save her!" Neji was upset, very upset inside, but he refused to show his emotions to Lee or to anyone else except Tenten. Neji had changed a lot since his teenaged years, he felt like a lost puppy without the woman he cared about.

Suddenly Neji felt the branch slightly bend as Lee appeared on the same branch as him and felt his hand pat him on the shoulder, Neji looked at him for a moment, wondering what Lee was doing, "Lee what are you doing?"

Lee sighed and said, "I know you think she thinks that Neji, even though we once were rivals, I always found you as one of the greatest friends to ever have the pleasure fighting along side, and Tenten perhaps was just acting a little over hormonal at the moment that woman did that to you." "I know you are faithful to Tenten, because if you hadn't I would be the one right now wishing to kick your ass."

Neji watched him and listened to every word he was saying, slightly confused and yet in a way understood slightly what Lee was trying to say. Neji remained quiet waiting for Lee to finish what he was trying to say. Lee then sighed again and tried to continue,

"I guess what I'm trying to say is, that we will get her back, Neji, we've got two geniuses on this team, and I know and probably Sakura even knows this, that you and Sasuke can come up with any sort of plan or way to spring Tenten out of even the darkest, deepest, most heavily guarded prison, because your passionate love for her is what drives you Neji in wanting to get her back at all costs."

Neji was surprised at his words, Lee, goofy simple Lee. Neji began to chuckle, the stress definitely had disappeared. Neji closed his eyes, and being his stoic self though, spoke up, "I think I understand what you are trying to say, I have to give this rescue attempt my entire all, and your right about my love for her, it has always driven me since probably…" He paused as he thought back to many years ago, when they had been young. The first day he had met her, she had been cute, just simply cute. He had immediately felt something for her back then perhaps, but he had buried it away, he had more things on his mind back then. And then the spark had sprouted back up when he and she were 16 when he had saved her from Kisame's water prison along with Lee while their sensei had fought against Kisame alone.

Why hadn't he realized it back then, when they were 16 that he was really in love with her? Probably his ambitions had driven him to think of love as something foolish, something unimportant. But Neji now knew it was the most precious thing he had, and would not loose it while he remained alive. "Since our Genin days Lee, thank you, your right, you're a good friend, I needed this talk with you, and it has made everything come into clarity now." Finished Neji softly, suddenly he removed his mask to find his cheeks soaked, tears had finally started pouring down the Hyuuga Prodigy's face, the man who never shed a tear since perhaps his father had died, was crying.

'_Father…she has become my destiny, she is the way to helping me become truly free…_' thought Neji as he quickly wiped his eyes and closed them afterwards. He tried to choke back a sob and felt Lee's hand pat him again on the shoulder in comfort. Neji gave Lee a small smile and said, "We better get back, there's no time to waste, Tenten's life is in the balance here, as is the future of this world." "We never leave any of our comrades behind nor allow them to be taken from right under our noses!" Neji quickly got up onto his feet and quickly leapt down from the tree, landing on the soft ground.

Rock Lee nodded, "Hai Neji! This upcoming battle will probably not just be a battle for the safety of two lives, but a battle to determine if we can even hope to stop whatever this new organization is, let the Springtime of Youth burn bright!!" Lee quickly followed Neji off the Tree and took off with him at a running pace back to their base of operations.

* * *

The genjutsu that had gripped Tenten for what seemed like an eternity finally was broken. Tenten slowly drifted back to the real world, having dreamt of nightmares and dangerous things that threatened to harm her and that of the baby. Her brown eyes attempted to focus as she looked to see a stone ceiling above her head.

"Where…where am I?" she croaked, she wondered how many days it had been since she had been placed under the Temple of Nirvana jutsu. All she had remembered was one of the ninja that brought her here, had called out these words, and she had fallen into a deep sleep. She certainly didn't feel tired anymore. Suddenly it came all back to her as she sat up quickly, both her hands going to her extremely swollen stomach feeling her son stirring inside of her after a brief pause, Tenten relaxed a little.

But that was when she noticed also that she had been hooked up to a weird I.V machine of some sort. She blinked and then looked at her wrists; her right hand had the needle stuck into the vein in that arm. She wondered what they were trying to do to her while she was asleep. She was their enemy, why were they showing her compassion? Tenten tried to recollect her thoughts.

'_Okay calm down Tenten, so far, they haven't killed you yet, they just put you under a genjutsu that seemed to have worn off. Now to figure a plan to get out of here. Damn it I wish Neji would have allowed me to keep some of my shuriken and kunai blades, at least I could try to fight them off…' 'But I know he was just looking out for both of us…' 'Damn it, Neji I miss you, I'm sorry…for blowing up like that, I should have detected something a miss the moment that woman started doing that…I'm such a baka._' '_I have to get out of here, I can't…ow…why is he kicking me so hard?_''

The baby had tried to interrupt her thoughts by kicking her heavily upwards, which left her gasping for air. Tenten waddled over towards where she had been laying down, seeing she had begun to pace around her cell. "I have to come up with a plan…" She then sat down and rubbed her swollen stomach gently with both her hands. "I hope Neji is okay…I don't want anything else to happen to him because of my stupidity…"

It had taken her so many years to finally be able to have her own happiness, growing up an orphan from the age of 3 years old, under the care of the Third Hokage, she knew what it was like to be lonely, just as much as probably Naruto had no doubt. She had been so happy when she had graduated the Ninja Academy when she turned 12 years old, she had made friends first with Lee and then as the time past even with the Hyuuga Prodigy that was her lover and fiancée now. She had always felt something strong for Neji, but she didn't exactly know it was love until she probably hit the age of 18.

She also had always been trying to impress him over the course of their teenaged life, she was proud at how deadly her skills with projectile weapons had become, it was almost legendary too her accuracy. Neji had once teased her about this when they had been 17 years old, a year after the war with Akatsuki had ended and things seemed a little more peaceful. They had really become closer friends then she had with Temari or even Neji's cousin, Hinata.

All she knew deep in her heart, that she still loved him all throughout those years, and even now, even if he had cheated on her that one time. It was hard to live a life of a Shinobi; it brought stresses all the time to all people. She would forgive him, for both hers and the baby's sake, but she would keep him on a very tight leash once they got home.

'_This, I feel like I am fighting an inner battle, as if like a battle with my own heart and feelings…in a strange way…_' she thought to herself. Suddenly she could hear something coming her way. Quickly she tried to pretend to be fast asleep, as two guards walked past her. She called out to no one in particular, as the guards left, "Neji! Please hurry!"

* * *

"Pick up the pace guys, we haven't got all day!" Shouted Sasuke to the others who were trying to catch up to him and Neji as they raced to the Great Naruto Bridge. The end of the month that the enemy had given Neji had almost expired, and Neji was growing anxious as well, '_Not much longer until Tenten's pregnancy is brought to an end…Haruno told us that she could be due as early as the first week of her 9__th__ month now.'_' he thought.

It had taken 2 weeks of careful planning and much thought as to how they would be able to get into the secret hideout, they would have to capture whoever it was that would come to bring Neji to his beloved, by having Neji be indeed captured himself. But the others were to hold back until Neji gave them the signal to follow cautiously behind him while he was being captured. Neji hated having to give into not fighting them, but this was the only way to get into the secret hideout of this 'Dark Oracle' Organization or close enough to it.

Neji came to about a few meters in front of the other side of the bridge that lead back to the Land of Fire and just out of eye sight range of anyone watching from that direction, he paused and lifted his hand to make the others stay behind, he then spoke,

"You guys stay here, and be my back up, if something doesn't go right, you all come out and do your hardest to capture their contact and force them to bring you to their hideout, then make sure you bring Tenten out of there alive, got it?" "The point of this mission is to bring Tenten back to Konohagakure alive." "If they do take me directly to their hideout, you guys follow them at a distance, just out of their range of sight and detection."

Everyone quietly agreed, knowing that possibly no one would survive this rescue attempt if something did indeed go wrong, and they didn't fall for the bait, the enemy that is. Neji then whispered, "Good Luck to all of us, may Kami-sama favour those foolish enough to do something this stupid…"

With that Neji quickly took off in the direction of the bridge, praying silently his fiancée was alright and that their ploy would work, the kidnappers were about to have some problems soon that was for sure.

As he walked he could see a woman dressed in a silver robe with white hair and maroon eyes waiting for him at the end of the bridge. Neji tried to remain calm and collected as he took his steps, '_I can't let them know they are going to be ambushed…I just can't._' He thought to himself nervously, '_They will know if there's even a slight deceitful thought or action…_' Once he was in talking range and earshot range he could hear the woman speak,

"Are you the one that killed Ryoku?" Neji stopped just a few steps in front of the woman as he made it to her, "Where is she?" Asked Neji through clenched teeth, "How can I guarantee that she's safe?" He waited for the woman to respond to him.

"Oh your precious little girlfriend is fine; don't worry your cute little head Hyuuga, because I know that you are a Hyuuga underneath that mask of yours your wearing." Said the woman. '_She's smart…I'll give her that._' Thought Neji.

Suddenly two shadows appeared behind him and he felt something hit him in the back of his head, right where Byakugan's weakness was. Neji gasped out in pain and fell limply to his knees. The woman chuckled as Neji then felt his arms being restrained by a pair of strong arms, stronger then his own.

The woman grabbed his chin and forced him to stare into her eyes as she knelt beside the Hyuuga man who was trying to fight to stay awake, "Hmm…you're lucky Kiran-sama wants you alive because I would kill you now for killing Ryoku." The woman then grabbed Neji's ANBU mask and threw it against the ground, lucky for Neji, the mask was durable enough to even withstand a pounding from a punch let alone being thrown against the ground like that.

"Take him to Lord Kiran, no…actually take him to the interrogation room in the hideout, we can have a little fun dissecting this puny Hyuuga man piece by piece, I'm sure that will fulfil some of our revenge on him." Neji then heard the two people who had grabbed him and hit him in the back of the head give a curt 'Hai' before he was dragged off to god knew where.

Before he fell into oblivion, seeing they had hit him pretty hard where the flaw of Byakugan was, he managed to give the signal for his comrades to start following from a distance after him. So far the plan was going perfectly. He then fainted after another few seconds more.

* * *

It hadn't been long before Neji was revived by someone's voice speaking to him loudly, "Neji! Wake up!" Neji fought back the pain in the back of his head as he slowly came to. "Lee…how many times…have I told you, to stop goofing around…" he murmured, as he immediately recognized the voice of his former team mate.

"Too many, we did as you asked and tailed you, we just couldn't let them take our best youthful friend directly in there, so we knocked them out." said Lee as Neji's vision finally cleared to see Lee hopping on one foot above him. Neji immediately tried to make a handseal and called out, "Byakugan!" His eyes at first pained him as he activated Byakugan but he could see the chakra points in Lee's head clearly.

"Good…at least that's not broken." He had remembered someone doing the same thing to him before, a year ago, and he had almost lost his use of Byakugan forever if it hadn't been for the Medic ninja on his team quickly reacting in time and healing his eye sight, he had become blind sighted by an enemy rogue ninja during a botched mission. He had been lucky indeed.

"Uchiha? Haruno?" he called out and tried to get to his feet slowly. "Hn…" was the response from Sasuke, who was leaning against a tree, keeping an eye on the building not far from their sight, they were still pretty much hidden from their view. "Yes Neji?" called Sakura as she had just returned from securing the small area they were in, to make sure there weren't any surprise 'visitors' that might try to come to the aid of the Dark Society's hideout once all hell broke loose.

"Okay, I need Sasuke and Lee to knock out the guards on the outside of the building, Sakura you will follow me, and all of you will meet me inside of the building and we will split up into teams and try to spring Tenten out of there…did you guys bring communicators with you?" He had made sure he had brought one for himself. The three of them nodded as they fiddled in their pouches for the devices, of course they would bring them on a rescue attempt mission like this.

Neji placed the volume control and the part you could talk into that went around the neck on his neck and the ear piece into his ear. He then watched as Lee and the others put theirs on, and immediately Neji snaked his hand out to Lee and quickly adjusted the sound volume control on it. Lee eyed Neji and Neji just quickly said,

"We aren't having another idiot escapade like back when we were 16 Lee; we need silence if we are going to infiltrate their hideout." He then turned to the others, "The frequency is 200 for our group." He quickly adjusted the frequency and did a test, "Can you guys hear me?"

The others quickly did as they were told and they all gave him normal thumbs up. Neji nodded, "Good, remember the plan, and stick to it, Lee, Sasuke go ahead and get to work, Sakura stay here while I remove the two guards in front of their door and check for booby traps…good luck…" Everyone made their silent answers back to Neji and quickly they went to work.

Neji got ready to pounce on the two ninja guards in front of the door. Pulling back his arm as he begun charging his chakra up, he then closed his eyes as he called out loud, "Hakke Kusho (Eight Trigrams Empty Palm)!" He then sent a blast of wind like chakra at the both of them as he thrusted his palm outwards, sending the ninja crashing into the walls silently without even making a noise, though Neji winced, he had probably broken their necks after hearing them hit the wall of the building pretty loud.

He quickly snuck out of the bushes and ran towards the unconscious men he had taken out and checked their pulse. One of them was dead, from indeed a crushed neck, and the other knocked out. They had every right to be dead, but he wanted to get Tenten out of this mess as quickly and as clean as possible, that was all he needed for the enemy to see and find out there was intruders here. He then made a hand signal in ANBU code that it was safe for Sakura to get over to the door.

He then called out, "Byakugan!" as quietly as possible. He then focused his sight inside of the building's inner walls. So far he could see a few guards here and there, and stair cases galore it seemed; this would prove risky in making this a quick rescue effort. Sakura spoke up as she reached his side, "Nice way to knock the enemy out Neji-San."

Neji just stayed silent as he continued to concentrate, he then stopped on a particular place, which he was staring into the floor of the building. He then spoke up,

"If my Byakugan isn't playing pranks on me, there seems to be a lone figure in a cell in the basement of this building, judging by this person, it could be Tenten, I can't really tell." Even though his Byakugan could go beyond the 50 meters of long range unlike the rest of his clan, there were factors that could screw up Byakugan even if you had the same kind of range of sight as Neji did.

"There's a barrier down there, that's the only logical explanation." Continued Neji as he then returned his eyes to normal, as he stared at Sakura for a few minutes. Sakura then gave her opinion,

"That or they got some form of seal on certain points of the wall, it could be that type of barrier jutsu, and we have dealt with certain types of Seals after all, Neji in our fights with the Akatsuki." Neji just nodded as he pondered, "I want you, Sasuke and Lee to guard the staircase that goes to the basement. I will go and investigate and free Tenten personally."

"Oh here by the way Neji, you dropped this…" Sakura said as she handed him his Peregrine Falcon shaped ANBU mask that the enemy kunoichi had taken off him when they knocked him out. Sakura immediately grabbed her own mask, that had that of a cat and placed it onto her face, she had joined the ANBU ranks probably around the same time Sasuke had over a year or two ago, in a way ANBU needed Sakura's skills in medical ninjutsu, there was never a dull moment when someone got injured on the squad.

Neji then placed his mask back onto his face and silently thanked Haruno for retrieving it. Sakura just nodded her head and as soon as Neji was ready, they carefully opened the door to the hideout of the enemy and snuck in as quiet as a mouse. Neji immediately snuck for the darkest shadowy part of the hall, lucky for them the place was poorly lit, and always had shadows it seemed.

He paused for a moment, quickly flattened himself against a wall as he listened to a conversation in the next hall close to them. "So Lord Kiran wants us to transfer the prisoner after we kill the Hyuuga?" said a male voice.

Neji heard the woman's voice that had attempted to bring him here said, "Yeah, he said that for me to take her to the Land of Grass and hide out there with her until we've dealt with those that are getting in the way of his Lord's plans." Neji clenched his teeth and attempted to calm himself, he had to stay strong, and they would not be doing any transferring of prisoners while he was about.

Neji then turned the volume high enough that he could speak into his communicator and low enough that those who responded back to him could hear him whisper and also without the enemy hearing him, "Falcon to Turtle and Reaper…give me your status…" He paused as he used Sasuke's ANBU code name and even though Lee was not of the ANBU corps yet; he had told Lee he would use this code name when addressing him whenever they had to use communicators for missions together. Why Sasuke used the nick Reaper, was probably because he was pretty fast at killing enemies, so apparently the Hokage had given him the Animal mask of a Reptilian type of creature that Neji had forgotten the name for, so Sasuke had said he wanted to be called Reaper and therefore it stuck.

He continued to wait for them to respond.

* * *

"Falcon to Reaper and Turtle come in…" crackled Sasuke's and Lee's communicators as Lee yelled out, "LEAF HURRICANE!" And executed his special move on an enemy guard as they had been trying to clear the area of enemies. Lee dodged a blow and back flipped away from another guard that came at him.

Sasuke on his part was using his kusunagi sword to decapitate one of the other guards. Once he was finished he fiddled with his communicator, "Reaper here sorry took so long, we…" He grunted as he tried to dodge a flying fist coming at him, "ran into a few problems…" He then dug his blade into the gut of the on rushing shinobi that had attacked his comrade.

"Report…" said Neji into the communicator back to Sasuke. Sasuke sighed and said, "We are almost finished cleaning up these guys, don't worry, we'll be in there soon, Reaper out!" He then quickly finished the last of the shinobi off, as did Lee with another of his special taijutsu moves.

"We're clear now, let's go…" said Sasuke, "Falcon's getting impatient with us…" Lee shook his head; "He must have found Tenten…" said Lee as he began running for the door that Neji had gone through.

Sasuke just replied like he always did, "Hn…"

Neji hoped that Lee and Sauske weren't messing this mission up, he would be furious at them if they did something stupid that got them injured. Neji had started sneaking towards where he had thought he saw stairs that would perhaps lead him down to the basement, where he could get to Tenten and free her.

Neji paused as he sensed chakra coming their way, "Kitten!" He called to Sakura in her Code name, immediately the two quickly attempted to hide their chakra presences as well as themselves from view. Neji waited for a brief moment or two, as he watched a man with jet black hair and white streaks walk pass where Neji and Sakura had disappeared into.

Neji counted to 5 as he then heard a man's voice, "Where is Meidia?" Someone else spoke in a shaky voice, "She went to go get the prisoner…she told me that you gave her an order to bring her to the Land of Grass." Neji peered every so often around the corner and stopped when he watched the man with the strange colored hair lift the man into the air with just one hand, and pretty much snapped the man's neck in two.

"You fool! I gave her no such order, she was to bring our arriving guest here, which I have just found out she did not do properly it seems!" Neji winced and quickly moved his face out of range and back towards where Sakura was hiding and made a few gestures to her with his hands. Sakura just shook her head quietly; Neji gave her a silent look. He was trying to tell her to stay here and Neji would go after the man, who was now storming down to a room at the far end of the hall.

As soon as the man was out of earshot range, Neji spoke, "Sakura, I want you to wait here for Sasuke and Lee to get here, I'll go after the man, and he's obviously going to check on their prisoner, and this also means she's here then!" Sakura then said back, "Neji, we should wait for the others, that man's chakra, something's odd about it, it seems extremely powerful, more powerful then some of the Akatsuki we faced long ago. You'll need all three of us to back you up if that guy finds out we are here…"

"What's this about tailing someone?" Whispered a voice, as a cloud of leaves suddenly appeared to be replaced by both Rock Lee and Sasuke, wearing his reptilian like mask. Neji was glad that his friends were alright, silently of course, and without letting them know he had been worried for them in his own stoic way.

"Haruno, I have to do this alone, you guys, yes are here as back up, I can not risk you getting killed or badly injured, Haruno, you are the only medic here, even though I'm sure myself and Uchiha know a few medical ninjutsu, it's best…" Neji trailed off, as something came into his thoughts. '_I'm acting like a fool…I have to start being the Genius here, instead of a lovesick puppy…_' he growled inwardly to himself.

"Fine…let's go…" sighed Neji in defeat, as he quickly peered around the corner to see that the man had disappeared into that room. "She must be somewhere that way, if that man went down there." He pointed with a gloved finger. Quietly they began sneaking down the hallway, making sure to cover each other's backs and keep an eye out for the enemy.

"Hey Falcon, wait…" said Sasuke as they managed to reach the door, "Check for booby traps, I just got this bad feeling…I'll use Sharingan also." Sasuke quietly activated Sharingan to check for anything out of the ordinary, anything that might be a genjutsu or some other deception. Neji was glad he brought the Uchiha along with him.

Neji quickly reactivated Byakugan and looked from bottom to top for anything out of the ordinary. Suddenly he saw what looked to be paper bombs plastered to the walls going down the stairs. "Hn, seems that you're right Reaper, though these aren't paper bombs, they look like wards. We will have to be careful; this is what probably was screwing up my Byakugan."

Mumbled Neji as he deactivated his Byakugan, he then said, "We will have to remove the wards as carefully as possible, without wasting too much time, the more we waste time, the more chances they will have to move our target out of this base of theirs."

Everyone silently agreed and as silently and quickly as possible, they began to enter into the dark depths of the Base of the Dark Oracle Society, knowing that they would not return to the outside world until they brought Tenten back out of there or they would die trying to.


	7. Operation: Retrieve the Heavenly One

**Chapter Six: Operation Retrieve the Heavenly One at All Costs**

Tenten could feel something in the air change, either that or something in her own cell. She had woken up to feeling slight cramping pains, that she had just dismissed as false labour, she had been feeling them every so often, Sakura had told her that she would be feeling them probably between her 8th month and her final month a lot. Her body liked to play pranks in other words, making her think it was her time, but it wasn't.

Suddenly she heard a bang and someone came shouting down the stairs, "Sir…Lord Kiran thinks that we have some intruders here, we found a whole bunch of our own comrades lying dead or unconscious outside of the base's door that hides our base's real entrance here." The two guards then talked about something else and then the first man said,

"Also Meidia is to be branded as a traitor, whatever order she gives you, we aren't to listen to it, and to kill her on sight, she has obviously disobeyed Kiran-sama too many times."

"Hai, alright…" said the second man. Hope began to spring inside of Tenten's heart, but quickly she hid her surprise and happiness from them, she did not want to lead them on that she was listening to their conversations. If that was true, what they said about the intruders then she knew Konohagakure had sent someone to get her back. She wondered who it was.

'_Please let it be Neji that comes to my rescue, oh kami-sama, I hope Naruto-sama sent him, there's so much I just…_' Thought Tenten as she was interrupted by one of the guards, "You better be quiet in there Leaf wench, those intruders will be pretty much walking into an ambush, and it's suicide to come strolling into this place, there's booby traps and not to mention about a good 100 shinobi and non shinobi here in this base alone."

Tenten remained vigilant and slightly stoic, "It could take a thousand Shinobi and yet won't stop the Will of Fire that burns in us to stop my Village's team…and they'll never give up, ever!" Shouted Tenten. She watched the two guards' eyes twitch in anger at her words. Her words had struck home it seemed or at least a nerve or two.

"Brave words for someone who can't even fight at the moment." Growled the guard who had come down to her prison cell to warn the other about what was going on up above. Tenten just gave them each a cold glare, she had been living with Neji a little too much it seemed, his attitude and ways of living were rubbing off on her. She rested her hand on her stomach and patted it a little, '_Don't worry Little one, soon we will be saved…I know it…if Neji was the one sent to get me out of this, he won't stop until we are both safe…_' She thought as the guards went back to their duties, Tenten just waited and prayed that the 'intruders' would get here as soon as they could and spring her free from her cage.

* * *

**Scarcely 5 minutes before this conversation happened…**

"Sir we have intruders in the base!" Shouted a man who had come running in gasping for air, as the man had been running great distances.

Kiran stood up and growled, "BAKA! You let them in here, didn't you?! Where are they?!" He was livid with anger at this very moment, first Meidia betrayed him, now this. He waited furiously for the man to stutter out to him,

"We think they might be coming for the prisoner, 3 ANBU and what looks to be a Jounin ranked shinobi from the Land of Fire's Hidden Village of the Leaf." Kiran gritted his teeth as he tried to remain calm and said as he clenched his hands into his fists,

"Sound the alarm, have them all check all the floors of this base, and I mean all of them! Place 5 extra guards on Tenten, I don't want these ANBU or that Jounin leaving here alive! GO NOW!" Shouted Kiran after saying this. The ninja in front of him quickly snapped a salute and bowed,

"Hai Kiran-sama!" And quickly disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Kiran was still angry, and shouted for someone to get in here. Yashiro quickly came in, at the beck and call of his master.

"Yes Lord Kiran?" said Yashiro as he quickly bowed his head. Kiran didn't wait for him to do the pleasantries, he snapped out, "Find that bitch and execute her!! NOW! Before she does something she will regret." He was referring to Meidia. Yashiro nodded and quickly disappeared before Kiran could even bat an eyelash.

* * *

**Meanwhile:**

Neji and the others had managed to get rid of the wards and got to about two floors just below Tenten's prison cell when they all could hear a loud sound that sounded like a Gong had been struck. "Not good…" hissed Neji to the others through clenched teeth once again.

"What's this mean?" said Lee, hopping around on his feet, Neji turned and bonked him on the head with his fist, "It means we've been detected…Lee, Kitten, Reaper, let's split up and meet back on the upper floors, this will help confuse the enemy more, and less likely for them to catch us all in one big group."

"Hai!" called out Uchiha and Sakura as they quickly headed in different directions; Lee rubbed his head with his bandaged hand and said, "Neji…be careful…" He gave Neji a stern look, which Neji calmly returned with one of his stoic icy famous glances in return before the two former team mates and good friends went their separate ways.

Neji took a calm relaxing breath; he hoped his friends would be fine without him. His hand patted his Ninjaken that was strapped to his back and silently he began running back towards the stairs they had come off of, and headed down the next flight. Pausing as he heard voices shouting above him. Neji grimaced slightly and quickly continued running down the stairs.

If they caught him, he would have to remove them quickly, and he wanted to avoid having to fight too many of them and waste his chakra. Thank god he always brought those military rations pellets with him this time. He stopped at the door of one of the floors and peered out of the door. '_Not this floor must be the next one down…_' thought Neji tirelessly as he then continued down the stairs after closing the door.

As he got about half way down the flight of stairs he could feel a familiar chakra presence, he knew that chakra presence pretty well. '_Hold on my koi…_'

* * *

Another body dropped as Sakura kicked and punched her way through, as 10 weak looking guards had attempted to ambush her as she ran down the hallway and got separated from Sasuke and Lee. She had wanted to go and help her friend Neji, who she had become close friends with due in part to Tenten mostly.

She glared at a few of the enemies that were closing in on her; '_I might have to unleash my Inner self on these temes…_' thought Sakura and suddenly a voice inside of her head spoke,

'_**CHA! LET ME AT THEM!**_'' An image of a taller Sakura with the words 'Inner Sakura' suddenly popped into her head, cracking her knuckles. Sakura just smirked underneath her mask and closed her eyes and said, "You guys should know it's not nice to beat up on girls…even if they are your enemy…" She then pulled back her fist and quickly slammed it into the ground, cracking the ground and sending them all to the ground with a scream of pain and probably shock.

"Hmph I showed you guys! Never get in the way of love or justice!" She said to the unconscious heap of guards. '_**CHA CHA!! You Got that Right!**_'' said her Inner self as it gave her the thumbs up sign. Sakura hmphed as she held back her laughter and then quickly took off hoping to find another way to the surface.

She stopped when she noticed something was in her way, or in this case, someone.

* * *

Sasuke had managed to defeat 10 guards on his own, he was wondering where the hell they all were coming from. He was getting exhausted, quickly he pulled a military ration pellet out of his pouch and pulling up his mask he took the pill and quickly placed his mask back on and threw his kusunagi blade in the middle of where the ninja and normal enemies, who didn't have a hitai-ate slashed headbands on their persons.

Sasuke quickly made a handseal with his forefinger and middle finger, "Chidori Nagashi (One Thousand Birds Current)!" He growled out as suddenly the ground where he had thrown his sword had become one big electrical field as those standing the closest to the blade had began to get hit with his special Lightning Attack.

Sasuke smirked and shook his head, "Hmph…not much of a fight, how boring…" Said Sasuke as he watched the rest of them collapse after getting quite a few mega joules of electrical charged chakra pumped into them. Sasuke had improved his special unique attack since he had returned to the Village, it had been obvious.

Suddenly Sasuke froze when he heard applause, and a voice coming from a corner, "Very impressive, for someone who is not of the Village Hidden among the Clouds." Said the voice. Sasuke glared towards the sound, Sharingan eyes being reactivated as he spoke,

"Come on out of there…now…!" Suddenly a figure dressed in what looked to be a yellowish-orange robe stepped out of the shadowed corner, a double bladed scythe in one hand and what looked to be a chain in the other. The figure pulled back their hood to reveal a man that looked no more then in his late 20s standing there. The man smirked at Sasuke as he spoke,

"Allow me to introduce myself, I am known or was known throughout Kumogakure as the dreaded 'Destiny's Light Shinobi' Fugaran Itsumaru and you're about to find out why I am called this fool…"

Sasuke just stood there after retrieving his blade and shook his dark raven haired head at the man, he then made the hand gesture that said to 'bring it on' at the man, "Hmph, not much on the fancy entrances or words, but it doesn't matter, just bring it on, I could use the fight, no one calls me a fool either, the last person who did was someone I vowed to kill long ago, and now he's dead." He then took a fighting stance and waited for the man to charge at him.

'_I hope Neji and the others can handle their own battles, I just got a bad feeling about something…_' was Sasuke's last thought before the battle begun between the two ninjas.

* * *

"Leaf Whirlwind!" Called out Lee as he came swinging his leg at the closest enemy near him, knocking the man into the air and came falling down before Lee punched him as he fell and sent him into the nearest wall with bone crushing force.

Lee swung himself around and came back into his fighting stance as he watched the two other enemies hesitate, and Lee smirked, "What's wrong, scared now?" said Lee mockingly as he held out his hand in the fighting stance gesture he always had it in when he was fighting. It felt good to be fighting again; Lee thought this to himself as he waited for them to come at him.

"You should be, you took my best friend away from my other team mate and friend, and now you will all be punished for it accordingly!" Shouted Lee as he came rushing at them at an incredible speed, kicking the two guards as well as throwing a few quick jabs into their gut and then at their chins, sending the two of them to the ground pretty fast.

Suddenly Lee had to back flip and then crouch down as three kunai knives came whizzing past him, one of them had an explosive tag on it, and quickly Lee ran for cover as the tag exploded. Lee then looked up after rolling into a small alcove to see a man standing there, a pretty big guy too, taller then Lee by the looks of it.

"Brave words from someone who by the looks of it can only use Taijutsu…" said the Man as the giant began to laugh at Lee. Lee attempted to remain calm as he got to his feet and walked out dusting himself, as he stood in the middle of the room and faced the man, Lee then took a small fighting stance once again.

"I am the Leaf Village's Honourable and Handsome Green Devil, my name is Rock Lee, and you are?" He asked, always being the courteous one when he was faced with a strong opponent. The giant continued to laugh before a serious look came on to his porcine like face as the man spoke up,

"Ha, you call yourself a shinobi of the Leaf Village huh? Well, where I am from, they call me the 'Iron Lightning Giant Shinobi of the Land of Lightning' Itaran, because of my abilities to use this…" Almost immediately the man pulled out what looked to be a giant assed sword that only the man could swing. "You better be ready to go to the afterlife 'Green Devil' because I will be sending you there in 5 seconds flat…" The man then charged Lee, for a big guy he was certainly fast.

Lee managed to dodge and landed crouched on top of a statue about a few meters away after leaping upwards, "Ha, finally an opponent that is probably stronger then even my once eternal rival, let us fight then!" His youthfulness was certainly burning up now. '_Neji…take care of Tenten, do not worry about us…_' thought Lee as he prepared to do battle with the giant man.

* * *

Neji could hear yelling and things blowing up above him as he quietly snuck through the prison floor, so far he had not been caught. Or at least until he turned onto a corner and ran straight into 7 guards, all looking pretty strong. '_I hope those guys are alright up there, I have a bad feeling though there's more to this then meets the eye. Opps…_' thought the stoic Hyuuga.

"HEY YOU DON'T BELONG HERE!" Shouted the men, and quickly Neji wished he had been more cautious. Quickly pulling out three kunai blades, Neji threw them directly at two of the guards, keeping one of the kunai blades to fight off anyone who got close enough to him.

Both kunai blades that had been thrown had managed to successfully hit their targets right in the throat or eyeball, both men went down with a cry in pain or gargle in the case of the man with the kunai in his windpipe.

Rage boiled up in Neji's veins as he quickly took his Juuken (Gentle Fist) fighting stance and activated Byakugan. He then quickly struck at his opponents with fury. Dodging a few things that were thrown at him by the enemy, he had managed to knock three more men before he was punched square in the jaw by a guard who had got beside him when his back had been turned. Neji winced and fell back, hitting into the corner of the wall.

Neji quickly moved out of the way as a mace like weapon came at him just in time. Neji growled and as the man with the mace came at him, he quickly ducked again and struck the man right at his heart tenketsu, growling lowly this time at his enemy as the man winced in pain and then fell to the ground. When one was pissed, no one dared to get in the way of a furious Hyuuga, especially the one that now was striking the rest of the guards to the ground. Neji panted as he came out of his rage and slowly standing straight he began to walk around the corpses that littered the floor.

He quickly looked around with Byakugan and saw the cell he had been looking for; indeed there was a barrier that had tried to deceive his eyes. Neji quickly deactivated Byakugan and looked around to see if there were other paper seals around the place. He saw that there were three others each in the corners of the cell. He wondered why they would have to put a barrier up around a cell like this, just to keep someone in there, who could obviously not put up much resistance while being in the condition she was in. Neji quickly tossed his ponytail back as he began to think on how to remove the wards carefully, he had seen something of this sort of barrier before, but he couldn't remember from where.

Then it came to him, quickly he stood back briefly before charging his chakra up a little. The way to removing a seal using barrier like this was to find the main seal, which was on the door by the look of it, and seeing he had Juuken to help him, the chakra that empowered the barrier came from that particular seal. He called out softly, "Juuken!" He then struck the seal on the door and immediately the barrier fizzled out with a small crackle of energy.

Neji then quickly pulled out a lock pick he had brought with him and began attempting to lock pick the door. He couldn't see the person inside just yet, seeing he had Byakugan off, seeing it would have done him no good due to how the door was made. It took him only a few minutes of lock picking before he managed to knock the lock off with a quick regular strike with his hand. He then kicked the door open, and peering around the corner to make sure no enemies had shown up to ruin his attempt to rescue the person, he ran into the dark prison cell.

It took him only a few minutes for his eyes to adjust, without having to use Byakugan to find the person he had been longing to rescue in the darkness. There lying on a small bed was a sleeping, yet still always beautiful no matter if she was fat or not, a very pregnant Tenten. Neji's heart clenched as he immediately ran over to her side. He knelt down beside her and touched her cheek gently as he removed his mask. He spoke up, "Tenten…"

* * *

Tenten had fallen into a deep sleep, oblivious to the goings on above her, the battling and explosions. The barrier seemed to keep things pretty much sound proof. She moaned softly in her sleep as she felt one of her cramping pains come and go in her stomach. She then took note she could no longer hear the humming of the chakra barrier, but a sizzling sound, and also the shouts and thumping sounds outside of her prison cell, just before the sizzling sound.

And now she felt something warm touching her cheek, a gloved hand and someone calling to her in a soft masculine voice, "Tenten." Tenten murmured something between her lips sleepily, "I don't want to get up…five more minutes…" She then tried to go back to sleep, but suddenly she felt a pressure on her mouth, something warm yet soft was touching her there. Slowly her chocolate brown eyes drifted open.

She tried to move her mouth to accommodate whatever it was touching her there. When her vision became focused, she was staring into the most beautiful of moonlit ivory colored eyes she had ever seen. Her eyes widened and immediately she pulled back, "Neji!" She was shocked to find him here, he had come for her, and she knew he would. All this time she had almost begun to doubt he would. Quickly she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down into another kiss, this certainly had been the best thing to wake up to find, her precious one kissing her.

Neji returned the favour by lifting her upwards to pull her into an embrace, her extremely swollen stomach, pressing up against his own stomach; he then deepened the kiss until he had to pull away. "Tenten…I missed you…" He said softly as he hugged her gently and yet carefully. Tenten nodded and rested her head against his shoulder for a moment before having to pull out of his embrace and suddenly she pulled back her fist and punched Neji right square in the face.

Neji fell onto his backside in shock, a hand going to his now swollen cheek. He shouted angrily, "What was that for?!?" He saw anger and hurt in her eyes as she attempted to get to her feet, he immediately froze and listened as she started to shout back,

"That's for making me think you cheated on me, do you know how much pain you put me through?!" Tears threatened to spill down her cheeks as she stared at Neji, she had been through this and practiced what she would say to him, but her plan had gone straight to hell. She watched as Neji attempted to struggle to his feet, still rubbing his cheek. He looked upset, and a little hurt. Tenten turned her back on him as he tried to speak,

"Tenten…forgive me for making you think that…" He said, trying to find the words to make her see he was indeed sorry. "That…I was unfaithful to you." "I was in a lot of pain too, I can tell you the honest forsaken truth, that the only woman I ever touched and will always ever touch is you…" He looked at the ground after saying this, "I know your angry at me, and probably do not want to talk to me now, but can't we put this aside so I can get you out of here at least?"

Tenten tried to fight the tears and sobs that threatened to escape, a few tears already streaking down her cheeks as she heard him say these words. This was exactly what she wanted to hear from him, she believed him, and she knew the Hyuuga could never really lie to her. Her hands rested against her stomach as she then turned to him and said while walking over to him and pulled him close within kissing distance, in a whispered tone,

"When we get home, I'm going to punish you in my own way…" She then with this kissed him passionately; the kiss was supposed to make him believe that she had forgiven him, that she had missed him terribly and that she loved him a lot. Neji groaned softly as he kissed her back, wrapping his arms around her again protectively, and possessively. After another moment passed Tenten pulled back and whispered,

"I love you Neji-Kun, please take me home…I don't want to be here anymore then you do…" She gave him a small shy smile and Neji immediately returned the smile and squeezed her gently in a hug that spoke he loved her also, before grabbing her hand and without another word attempted to run with her out of the door.

They had managed to get to the stairs without any more guards to bother them. "Neji…loan me your Ninjaken please?" Asked Tenten, Neji knew he could not refuse nor argue with her to arm Tenten with a weapon seeing they were in a battle zone after all. Neji quickly stopped briefly on one of the stairs to unstrap the scabbard and handed it to her. "Tenten, I don't want you to have to fight, but if you have no choice, then use it…" He said to her after giving her his ANBU weapon.

Tenten quickly held the medium length sword's scabbard in her hand and quickly ran with Neji up the stairs as fast as her body would allow. Not knowing that someone was awaiting them in the room that lead to escaping to the outside world. Neji and Tenten managed to reach the floor that Neji and the others had come in from and quickly Neji spoke to Tenten as he and her made a brief pause to catch their breath,

"Tenten, we are almost there, as soon as we get out of here, I want you to run directly for the Village in the Land of Waves, and find a man named Inari, he'll know what to do." Said Neji. Tenten nodded but was about to ask Neji why he wanted to go alone when suddenly a voice hissed out,

"You're going no where, fast…Konoha scum…" The couple froze in their step and both of them slowly turned around to see a man with black hair and white streaks as well as three guards with him. "Neji!" called out Tenten, worried for both herself now and Neji.

"I know Tenten…damn it…where is the others, they are supposed to be here by now, I told them not to take any unnecessary risks…!" growled Neji under his breath, he looked at the three guards and then at the man and then the surrounding area as he quickly took a step in front of Tenten to protect her, glaring at the guards through his ANBU mask that he had placed back on after they had left the prison floor.

He noticed a room that lead to another room, this place was one huge maze it seemed; perhaps he could loose them with Tenten in this maze like place. Neji then quickly pushed Tenten towards the door and shouted, "TENTEN RUN!"

Tenten needed no more advice from Neji after hearing him shout that to her, and quickly she ran for the door that Neji had pushed her towards and opened it and quickly disappeared through the door, Neji not far behind her. She could hear the man that had tried to block their path shriek out, "AFTER THEM! KILL THEM BOTH! NO MORE FAILURES!"

Tenten tried her best to run as quickly as she could and almost tripped and fell on a rock, Neji was quicker and managed to catch her in time and quickly continued running with Tenten in his arms bridal style. Tenten murmured her thanks to him softly; Neji just looked at her and said,

"You've gotten heavier since the last time I had to carry you Tenten…" He was making an obvious assumption at that moment. He quickly kicked the door open that was in front of them, and dashed through it, the angry shouts of the guards trailing them not too far behind. Tenten almost snapped out,

"I'd like to see you carry a child for 9 months, and see how heavy you'd get Neji!" She was being hormonal, even at a time like this. Neji reached up to remove his mask and kissed her forehead softly to sooth her, "I was only making an observation my koi…it was not intended to hurt you." Tenten pouted a little as she grabbed his mask and held it in her hands as he continued to carry her in his arms.

'_I just hope the baby doesn't come in a moment like this…_' thought Tenten inwardly to herself as she peered around behind Neji and said, "Neji! We have to make a stand sooner or later, we have to fight them off, there are only 3 of them, and we can take them on!"

She heard him grunt and then suddenly skidded to a halt in another room that seemed to be a little bigger then the last two rooms, perfect for fighting on close quarters like this. Neji quickly and carefully placed Tenten on her feet and immediately went into his Gentle Fist fighting stance as he then activated Byakugan while moving his long ponytail that went all the way down to his backside. He then spoke teasingly to his beloved,

"Are you sure you can take them, even in your condition?" Tenten was getting pissed off, but realized he was trying to lighten the mood, seeing the both of them were stressed as it was, their escape route had been blocked off by that weird guy. Tenten quickly with a flick of her wrist unsheathed the Ninjaken blade with expert skill and waited for the on rushing guards to catch up with them. "Of course I can! Watch me!"

She knew she had to be careful with the baby and all, but at least her skills were still sharp, she thanked kami-sama for allowing her to get in some practice when Neji or Sakura weren't hounding her to take it easy. She heard Neji chuckle and suddenly the three guards had managed to catch up and attempt to surround the couple. Apparently they had managed to rouse up three more guards, so instead of three guards, there was now six of them.

"You take three, I get the rest…" Said Tenten as she charged at one of the guards, slashing out with deadly precision for the guard's throat, the guard immediately dodged but was quickly stabbed in the shoulder by Tenten's sword. Tenten was indeed deadly with all types of weapons. Neji watched in slight awe before he was pounced upon by three of the enemy, quickly Neji called out, "Hakkesho Kaiten!" and begun to spin, sending the guards flying , lucky for Tenten she was out of range of being hit by the Heavenly Spin Technique.

Tenten took another fighting stance that was like an old dance. She danced out of the way as one of the guards tried to go at her with a wicked looking blade, and immediately slashed their arm off. Glaring fiercely at the last guard who was watching the pregnant kunoichi and wondering if it was such a good idea to go after the woman now. Tenten gave the 'come hither' gesture and quickly the man decided to value his own life and make a hasty retreat.

Tenten giggled and shook her head, "Well that's it for now Neji, let's…" Suddenly she was grabbed and held in a deadly headlock, her mouth covered by a gauntleted hand. Tenten tried to scream and struggle. She then heard Neji yell, "Tenten! Let her go!"

"I don't think I will be letting this useless kunoichi go any time soon, unless…" said the voice of the man with the dark hair and white streak as he began to laugh at Neji. There was a long pregnant pause after this as the two men glared at each other. The room becoming deathly chilly from their hard staring.


	8. Chapter Seven: Battle of Wits and Lives

**Chapter Seven: Battle of Wits and Lives**

"Let her go, now!" said Neji in a deadly calm voice. But inwardly he was panicking, worried what the man might do to Tenten if the situation got worse. He would remain calm even in this bad situation. He watched the man knock his Ninjaken that he had given Tenten to use to the ground, with bruising force; he could see already Tenten's hand beginning to bruise with Byakugan being activated.

Neji gritted his teeth, this man would pay. He then spoke in a cold and again calm voice, "You are the one called Kiran aren't you, you are the cause of all this strife, and you are also the one that kidnapped my team mate and beloved! No one ever does that and lives!" He snapped this last part to his words bitingly at Kiran, as he took a step to the side, remaining in his fighting stance, Byakugan still active.

"And what if I am? There's no way a puny Hyuuga like you can hope to manage to break his precious lover from my grasp and even hope to escape this maze of rooms that I call my base of operations…" "You might as well surrender now…there is neither hope for you or your pitiful village, once the Dark Oracle Society's shadow overhangs Konohagakure, it will be under my control…"

Neji clenched his jaw a little, as he listened to the words. The blood was rushing to his head, the rage simmering to a dull roar inside of his veins, he had to think of something to save Tenten and get them both out of here, or at least her. He turned slightly to look at Tenten who was crying, he could see fear in her eyes, and then suddenly she managed to get Kiran's hand off her mouth, "NO Neji! Don't surrender, never surrender! We can't…!" Suddenly Tenten was backhanded across the face and sent to the ground with a cry of both surprise and pain.

Neji quickly made his move, as he lunged at the man, quickly using his highly trained speed to reach Kiran in seconds flat, he then struck out with his Gentle Fist attack and knocked the man flying into a wall. Growling, he quickly grabbed Tenten and carried her to a safe corner, he felt her clutching his arm and could hear her sobs. Neji quickly tried to soothe her,

"Tenten, it's alright…I'm here, I won't let him get you…ever again." He kissed her cheeks soothingly. Tenten looked up at him and nodded a little and tried to give him a hug, "Neji…please be careful…I can't…I just can't loose you again, not like that time you went with Shikamaru and the others to save Sasuke…" Neji brushed her bangs with his hand to the side as he listened to her, his eyes held slight warmth and obviously his love for her.

He then pressed his lips gently to hers and said, "I won't die, I promise you this…stay here, I will finish him off as quickly as I can…"

"Ha, ha, ha, I like to see you try, you didn't even hit a vital spot." Shouted a demented sounding Kiran as the man had managed to get back to his feet and spat out a bit of blood. Neji cringed slightly as he heard the voice and quickly kissed Tenten on the forehead again and said, "Stay here, and stay out of the fight!"

Tenten was about to plead with him but knew she would loose the argument; she silently nodded and winced. Neji saw the wince and quickly asked, "What is it? Is…" Tenten shook her head, "Just a cramp, I've been feeling them all day, just go and kick his ass for me Neji, please…" She whispered to him, smiling at him. Neji nodded and quickly gave her another kiss on the lips and got to his feet, taking a few steps away so that he had enough room to fight and also to keep Tenten safely away from the fight that surely was to come.

Neji closed his eyes for a moment and spoke in his stoic like voice, "Let me tell you something about the Gentle Fist Kiran, it only takes a glancing blow for it to take affect, that's why its called the Gentle Fist…" A smirk played on the now calm and stoic Hyuuga. This was the man Tenten knew very well.

Tenten cheered, "GO GET HIM NEJI! KICK HIS ASS!" Neji tried to hold a bemused chuckle back at hearing Tenten cheering for him. She had never once really cheered for him, she had always been quiet it seemed when he had first faced off with Naruto in his first Chuunin Exam. He then focused his attention to Kiran as the man had managed to get in range to fight Neji at hand to hand almost.

"Ha…I barely felt it, it's time I put an end to your pitiful life, and then once I'm through with killing you…" Kiran turned and pointed a finger towards Tenten. "She's next!" Neji's anger was getting to him again, and suddenly the Hyuuga was in front of him, Neji called out, "Enough of this! Your threats mean nothing! Hakke Kusho!" He then sent Kiran flying again into the wall with the aid of Neji's Eight Trigrams Empty Palm Technique.

"You boast that you're the powerful leader of this organization, and yet you can't even get a hit on me yet…" said Neji with a smirk. Suddenly he heard Tenten cry out in pain, and immediately turned to see her clutching her stomach, '_Oh crap…it can't be her time now!_' thought Neji slightly panicked, this had distracted him long enough for Kiran to suddenly come rushing head long at him, "NEJI!" Tenten shouted but was too late as Neji was suddenly head butted and sent flying into a wall with almost back breaking force.

* * *

All hell broke loose as she watched her stoic lover battle with Kiran. Tenten had thought these pains she was feeling were just muscle cramps, but she had been totally wrong. Suddenly a severe twitching sharp pain flared up across her lower abdomen.

Tenten winced and practically tried to hold back a cry of absolute pain. '_No…not now, please not now, I can't have the baby here while Neji and both I are in danger!_' _Why does it have to be now?!'_ Thought a now panicking Tenten, as she finally identified the pains as contractions, and they seemed to be coming frequently now.

She then felt another contraction come and she let out a strangled cry that did not go unnoticed by her beloved, she then saw out of the corner of her eye Kiran rushing at Neji. Tenten panted as she tried to get her breathing under control, "NEJI!" She shouted, trying to get him to pay attention to the battle and not his labouring girlfriend at the moment.

But she was too late; she knew she was too late.

Neji groaned in pain as his stomach hurt, but managed to get up, coughing up blood, he quickly wiped his mouth and glared at the man. '_I have to make this quick…Tenten is in trouble…_'

Kiran smirked at Neji and said, "What's wrong little Hyuuga, worried about your precious woman? Don't worry she will join you in hell after I am through with the both of you, and that thing inside of her will also join you both."

Neji glared and attempted to regain his breath and control the pain in his stomach and back. '_I have no choice, I will have to use that jutsu…to make this fast._' '_I have to buy a little time so I can set the zone up though…' _He heard another scream coming from Tenten and he knew he had to think fast.

He then saw Kiran coming at him and suddenly heard him shout, "This is the end!" "ENJOY THE AFTERLIFE YOU SACK OF GARBAGE!" Neji could see him making handseals and quickly Neji managed to get the zone ready just in the nick of time. A small smirk appeared on the stoic Hyuuga's lips as he watched the man stop in his tracks, including making his handseals.

"What's that smirk all about? You think it's funny?" shouted Kiran; a worried look appeared on the man's face. Neji then said as he took his stance, his left hand flat out and pointing downwards, his other arm up high, his body bent down. He was in the stance of the 64 Palms Jutsu; Neji spoke as he said,

"Your about to find out what's so funny in just a moment, your in the zone of my Eight Trigrams, and now, it's over!" Neji shouted angrily, and immediately as soon as the man was close enough, Neji rushed and stood bent down, "Hakke Rokujuyon Shō (Eight Trigrams 64 Palms)…" He paused to bring his hand into the striking position, "2 Palms!" shouted Neji as he struck fast, the man attempted to dodge but managed to be hit. Neji then struck four more times and called out, "4 Palms, 8 Palms!" He struck 8 more times, and then another 16 times, "16 Palms!" He then switched his position ever so slightly as the man was now frozen in his step; he could hear him grunting in pain as he was struck in certain spots, with Neji's special technique,

"32 Palms!" He struck 32 places and then Neji called out as he struck 32 more times after this, "And finally…64 PALMS!" He then pushed the man away from him. "I'm not done yet either…" Neji growled as he lifted his head from hiding his face beneath his arm, "Hakke Hyaku Nijuhachi Sho (Eight Trigrams 128 Palms)!" He then began striking at an extremely fast rate at the man's chest, arms and anywhere else he could strike at, his hands became a blur as if he had multiple hands striking at Kiran. Stopping after he finished this last move, his stance again changed as he assumed the stance of the Eight Trigrams Palms attack stance, he then called out, "And finally, my newest technique…Eight Trigrams 256 Palms Style!" He then became a blur as he finished Kiran off with another 128 strikes to his enemy's body.

Neji then panted as he kicked Kiran away from him, "Your through Kiran…" hissed Neji between his teeth. He wasn't paying attention to Tenten who had become quiet for a moment. An obvious awe stricken look was on the kunoichi's face. Neji listened to Kiran's words for a moment. "The Dark Oracle Society…" The man began coughing and spitting up blood as he tried to struggle to move, he was paralyzed from Neji's constant striking at his arms and legs and every where else.

"The Dark Oracle Society will never…die…not as long as my ambitions…continue on…" croaked Kiran as his body began to spasm before the man took his last remaining breath and died. Neji felt slight anger yet relief wash over him. He had killed Kiran at last. But something was worrying Neji as he stared at Kiran's corpse for a few moments. Suddenly another pain filled cry could be heard shattering the silence and all of Neji's thoughts as well.

"Neji! If it's not too much…problems for you…I COULD USE YOUR FUCKING HELP!" shouted Tenten as she tried to keep her breathing steady while also attempting not to go insane from pain. Neji blinked and quickly realized who else was here, and the situation as well. "Tenten!" He quickly ran over towards her, "It's time, isn't it? Talk to me." Said Neji as he managed to get to her side as fast as he could, seeing the puddle of fluid that was soaking at Tenten's feet, he knew she was in labour.

"No you see I'm just breathing hard, YES I'm fucking in labour Neji!" shouted Tenten, Neji knew she didn't mean those words; she was just in a lot of pain. Neji began to panic, he didn't know how to deliver a baby, but he might have no choice in the matter. "Fuck…where the fuck is Haruno when you need her…" Muttered Neji. He tried to think and then remembered something in a book he had been reading when Tenten had not been around, he had wanted to figure out about this whole child birth process and much to the horror of Neji he had managed to read most of the book, but had been too disgusted to finish it.

'_Don't panic Neji, don't fucking panic, she needs your help, and the best thing you can do is be cool headed in a situation like this. One false move or something could put her and the child in jeopardy'_ said his Inner self to him.

'_Oh yeah like that's really helping me…geez thanks!_' thought Neji back angrily to his Inner self. He then quickly removed his backpack he had been wearing and fiddled inside of it for a moment, trying to find something to help her be more comfortable, managing to have a black shirt he quickly made a pillow out of it, and went to lift Tenten's head, "Here, lay your head on this…" He tried to say softly, trying to keep her calm and himself also.

Tenten sobbed and laid her head on the makeshift pillow that he used his shirt for and grabbed Neji's hand tightly and said, "Neji…don't leave my side, please…ever again…" She whimpered as she felt another pain coursing through her body before it lessened.

"Never…" He whispered to her soothingly as he squeezed her hand back, not caring if she broke his hand with how strong she was gripping his hand. He would pretty much soon have to check on her progress, "Tenten…I...I have to check how far the baby is coming along…" He said with a slight stutter, wishing to the gods Sakura would be here instead to help Tenten. He wasn't very good at this sort of thing. '_Life has its twists and turns it seems._' He thought as he went to remove her soaked pants she had been wearing and quickly fiddled into his pack to grab a blanket and cover her once he checked.

Tenten whimpered in pain as Neji spoke to her, holding her hand once again, "So far I don't see the head, but it's probably not that long until we do…just concentrate on your breathing okay?" said Neji as he stroked Tenten's sweat dampened hair. Tenten nodded and suddenly she had an urge to push as another contraction came,

"Oh god, Neji I have to push, I have to…!" she shouted as the pain became extremely intense. Neji frowned and quickly got to the business end, bending her legs at the knees, he would have to do this alone then. He had no choice, "Alright, on the count of three, push as hard as you can until I tell you to stop, okay my koi?" He then knew this certainly would be a life altering experience for him, he was going to help in the birth of his own child for crying out loud, "One…two…three…"

* * *

The others had managed to defeat their opponents, though the one that Lee had fought managed to some how escape before he could use his Primary Lotus Technique on them. Sasuke spoke up as he attempted to hold his bleeding shoulder and stop the bleeding, while Sakura healed Lee's injured arm with her Mystical Healing Palm Jutsu,

"We have to catch up with Neji and Tenten, Neji should have her by now…" Suddenly his ears perked up when he heard a scream coming from down a corridor as they managed to reach the starting point of where they had come.

"That's Tenten's scream…I know her voice…!" shouted a hyper Rock Lee. Sasuke wanted to hit Lee so hard for being hyper like he was but decided to let his team mates do that, "Why would she and Neji go that way? Unless…" said Sakura as she finished up healing Lee's arm and began healing Sasuke's shoulder.

Sakura had been the lucky one, and had not gotten injured or barely did against her opponent whose name had been Selafina or something or other. The woman had been an expert with using Lightning Style type of attacks that could paralyze a person if they got with in the circle that the woman had stood inside. Of course Sakura had managed to barely get out of one of the traps the woman had set up, but had sent Selafina to lala land with a few quick punches and an Earth style jutsu she had self taught herself, seeing Earth Jutsu was strong against Lightning Style attacks.

"Unless they got attacked and had to run that way…" Finished Sasuke as they stopped to hear more screams coming from the direction, "We better go and help them out, the sooner we help them, the sooner we can get out of this damn dark pit, it feels like Orochimaru's Lair a little too much."

This brought a chuckle from Sakura and also a shake of her head, and quickly the three agreed to follow the sounds, hoping their comrades were indeed alright. But when they got there they were all shocked at what they would find.

* * *

"Push Tenten! Your doing fine, one more please..!" encouraged Neji, as he watched his girlfriend lift herself up to a half sitting position and attempt to push again while holding her breath, a pained look on her face. After a moment she slumped back onto her makeshift pillow, sweating profusely and getting very cranky and tired all in the same time.

Neji continued to check on the process every so often, he was being pretty damn brave considering he had never helped a woman give birth before, nor would he after this. Next time he would make sure the medic ninja would be present to help his beloved. In other words, yes he wanted more children, other then just this one.

"The head's almost half way out, another push or two and the shoulders will be out…Tenten…" said Neji calmly. Tenten nodded her head. Tenten cursed out loud, "After this Neji! I swear I will never have another child again! I can't take all this pain!" She said between hiccupping sobs and pants as she felt another pain coming, but this time Neji wanted her to breathe this time.

Neji chuckled and leaned over to kiss her sweaty forehead, "That's if I don't want to have more in the future Tenten…" He said softly as he watched her. Tenten blinked her eyes open as she looked at him briefly before another contraction came, a very severe one which took her entire concentration away. Neji could read this and quickly snapped, "Push hard!" Tenten complied and quickly lifted herself up again and pushed with all her strength for a moment while holding her breath. She wanted to sleep but she knew she couldn't not until the baby was out of her.

Neji could probably feel for Tenten, it wasn't easy to bring new life into the world it seemed. "One more push Tenten…it's almost out…" Tenten grunted, which sounded very unlady like but she didn't care at the moment and she let out a scream to the heavens as she pushed the baby out finally after another moment or two.

She watched out of her half lidded eyes as she saw Neji's hands go beneath her legs and felt something warm between them before silence. '_Please don't let my baby be stillborn…_' just as Tenten was thinking this, she heard a baby's cry, a small one but it sounded healthy enough. She opened her eyes to look at the blood covered tiny infant in Neji's arms delicately as it cried. Tears of happiness sprung and trickled down her cheeks as she saw her son in his arms. She was so happy, so happy and yet so tired all in the same time.

Neji quickly did his best to clean up the baby with what limited things he had in his backpack, and pulled out a kunai blade to cut the cord and once this was done he placed the naked child in his mother's awaiting arms. Neji looked kind of between half shocked, half surprised and yet in awe as well. And he looked so pale and ready to faint too.

"He's…" Tenten tried to say as she looked at the child who had calmed down a little bit, his eyes were closed but immediately opened as the tiny boy stared intently with the same colored eyes as his father, ivory and yet slightly more paler then Neji's but that was normal it seemed, they probably would be the same shade as his father and Hinata's as he grew older and in time. She tried to form the words, "He's so beautiful…" She finally managed to whisper.

Neji nodded quietly and said, "Just like his mother…" He gave Tenten a smile and leaned over to kiss her forehead, "You did well, my heavenly one…" He whispered into her ear this last part. Tenten smiled and kissed Neji's cheek, "How did you know what to do?" asked Tenten. "Let's just say that I read a very disturbing horrifying book that helped me figure out what to do in this situation, and never again will I do this…" said a shaky Neji. He had a horrified look on his face which was very endearing to Tenten.

Tenten giggled and said, "Well, if you want more children, then you might have to help me out again." She said this teasingly and this sent a small shiver up Neji's spine, not that he wasn't happy to help bring his son into the world. Neji guessed he could claim bragging rights whenever he paraded his son around to the others.

The tiny Hyuuga boy yawned and waved a tiny hand in the air as he continued to look at his mother intently with those beautiful eyes that marked him as a Hyuuga. Tenten pondered what to name the infant and looked to Neji, "Neji, we still have to name him…" She really hadn't figured the perfect name for their child. She then waited for him to answer her as she watched him grab another spare t-shirt and took their son into his arms to wrap the child in the shirt. Neji wanted to make sure their son was covered up and warm so they could leave at a moment's notice.

Neji stared intently at his newborn son for a few minutes with his Byakugan like eyes, thinking for a moment. The name came out in a whisper, "Toshirou Hyuuga…" Tenten almost didn't catch what he had said. She allowed the name to roll on her tongue for a moment and then said,

"That's a perfect name Neji…" She smiled tiredly at him and watched as father and son attempted to bond a little. Neji traced his finger along the tiny boy's forehead and was thankful that little Toshirou would never have to face having the curse mark of the Side Branch be placed on his forehead. This brought the stoic Hyuuga to almost tears. He was so glad Hinata had vowed to keep her promise in changing the ways of the Hyuuga.

"Tenten, we won't have to worry about Toshirou having the Curse mark placed on his forehead when he reaches 4 years old…" started Neji and saw that his lover was asleep, she had worn herself out. Neji smiled and leaned over to brush his lips against her own, "Sleep well my beautiful angel…"

He then turned to look at Toshirou who had also fallen asleep and whispered to his sleeping son, "Welcome to the world Hyuuga Toshirou…" He then gently cradled his son more carefully into the crook of his arm and waited until Tenten awoke.

Suddenly he could hear the door to the room he had fought Kiran in, and aided Tenten in her birthing bust open. Neji glared and immediately activated Byakugan, ready to defend both his fiancée and his newborn son at a moment's notice. Suddenly he saw a familiar face pop in. Neji began to sweat drop as he saw Rock Lee pop in.

He was going to kill Lee when he and Tenten got back to Konohagakure, he could guarantee this. "Lee…" called Neji as softly as he could without disturbing his sleeping son and girlfriend. Neji stood up and walked over to towards the door as Sasuke and Sakura also pushed Lee into the room.

Rock Lee and the other two both froze in shock as they saw what Neji was holding. "Is…is that…?" said Lee as he pointed a shaky finger towards the sleeping infant in Neji's arms. Neji placed a free hand on his hip as he only responded with an "Hn…"

Sakura pulled her mask off and immediately took in the entire scene, "What the hell happened here? And why is Neji holding…oh my god! That's why Tenten was screaming you idiot!" Sakura then bonked Lee and Sasuke both on the head, which made Neji chuckle and both other men, wince and hold their heads and yell out, "Itai!"

Sakura then quickly ran over to Tenten's side to check on her, making a small handseal and began healing Tenten up. This only took a few minutes. "So you did the whole thing with her Neji? That's amazing!" said Sakura after making sure Tenten was alright and also moving her to a more comfortable place, away from the blood soaked area.

Neji nodded and began to blush a little as he continued holding Toshirou in his arms, "Yes…I did, and without any of your help either, next time, when I tell you to meet me back in a certain place, do it!" he snapped, becoming the ANBU squad captain once again. He was too tired to even want to hear the excuses of his comrades. Lee was the first person to speak up,

"We were side tracked and had to fight one on one with a Dark Oracle Society Ninja!" Whined Lee, as he hopped a bit again on each foot, before he saw the tiny bundle in Neji's arms, and quickly walked over to him, "Is that my god child?" Neji just nodded and said, "Tenten had a boy…"

"Can I hold him? I promise to be gentle with him…what's his name?" asked Lee hyperly. Neji sighed, he didn't really want to deal with Lee being so hyper so Neji carefully placed Toshirou in his arms and kept his eye on Lee, and making sure Toshiro came to no harm, "His name is Toshirou Hyuuga…we both agreed that would be his name…"

"Such a very youthful name! Hyuuga Toshirou will one day burn with the same power of youth as both his mother and father once did!" Shouted Lee with glee. Neji and the others began to sweat drop and Sasuke immediately punched Lee on the head, which made Lee cry and almost drop Toshirou, then an argument ensued between the Uchiha and the once Maito Gai 'mini' me clone.

Neji growled, "Watch it!" He quickly snatched his sleeping son away from Lee before Toshirou could be dropped. Neji had become very protective of his first born son, and he wasn't going to let anyone hurt him. It had been such a struggle to bring Toshiro into the world in the first place.

Sakura glared, "Both of you chill out!!" Sakura's voice had changed slightly seeing she had released her Inner Sakura on the two fighting people. Sasuke and even Lee both froze in mid stride as the two were about to start a fist fight. Sakura then walked over to Neji and said, "Tenten's going to be fine, I'd like to make sure little Toshiro's okay, and then we should get Tenten and the two of you back to the Land of Waves and have someone go back to Konohagakure to warn Naruto-sama."

Neji nodded quietly and Sakura took Toshirou delicately into her arms and began to do a quick examination of him, making sure he had all 10 of his toes and fingers and all of his limbs as well. Neji knew this was probably just a thing medic ninja did to make sure that newborns weren't born with any abnormalities that could prove life threatening. Once Sakura seemed to be finished, she handed the sleeping Toshiro back to his father.

"Sasuke-Kun, I want you to give Neji a hand here, I want you to carry Tenten on your back to the Land of Waves, Lee I want you to go to Konohagakure and bring some back up and probably a clean up crew, and another medic ninja." Neji did not really like the idea of Sasuke touching his beloved Tenten, but knew it was only to bring her to safety, so he would let this slide just this once.

The other two had calmed down and both agreed, Sasuke quickly ran over to Tenten's side and very carefully lifted Tenten into her arms, after wrapping the blanket that was slightly covered in blood around her, and took off, followed closely by Neji and the others.

Once they were outside, Lee departed immediately for the Land of Fire, which wouldn't take too long to bring help, with Lee's speed he would be there within probably not even a day. Neji walked alongside Sasuke and kept his eye on his sleeping beautiful angel, who had carried and brought Toshirou into the world.

Neji knew though that this wasn't over with the Dark Oracle Society, but this depressing turn of events could wait. Right now he would celebrate the birth of his and Tenten's child, and put all other depressing things aside for the time being, right now he had everything he ever wanted right here. A beautiful woman that he would marry soon as she was up on her feet, and fully recovered and he had a son that would probably undoubtedly one day wish to follow in the footsteps of his father, and the Clan he had been born into.

Neji for once did something unexpected which shocked the hell out of Sasuke and even Sakura as they headed for the Village in the Land of Waves, and that was to show an actual smile in public, and also to fight the sting of tears of happiness.


	9. The End and the Beginning of Darkness

**Chapter Eight: The End and the Beginning of Darkness**

Tenten awoke to a bright light in her room, somewhere in the Land of Waves. She couldn't remember being in such a brightly lit room in her entire life. Her eyes attempted to adjust as she opened them. Things began to become clear, as she also noticed her entire body was aching as if something had been ripped from inside of her.

"Neji-Kun?!" She called out almost in a panic, making sure Neji and her son was somewhere close to her. She heard someone whisper as the bed that she was lying on dipped down a little as Neji came into her line of sight, holding something covered in blue cloth in his arms. "Shhh…Tenten, you need to rest, you almost lost a lot of blood…back in the Dark Oracle Society's hide out."

Tenten blinked and then asked, "Where…wheres…" And then she saw the blue clothed bundle and the mess of fuzzy dark hair, and knew that what she had thought was a dream was actually real. She choked back a sob as she closed her eyes, but could not help it when she saw her beautiful infant son safe in his father's arms. Neji looked at her with concern written in his ivory eyes as he leaned down to kiss her passionately on the lips.

"Tenten, what's wrong?" asked Neji as he pulled back briefly after Tenten returned his kiss with much affection. Tenten then said,

"Nothing I'm…I'm just so happy, that we all made it out of that dark pit of hell, Neji-Kun…" She watched him conflict with something and then turn his gaze down to his son who was wide awake and began tickling Toshirou's sides, which made the little Hyuuga boy giggle before finally saying,

"I'm happy too, but this is not over yet Tenten, they are still out there…I am afraid I did not kill the real leader of the Dark Oracle I think. His final words to me, were this, 'The Dark Oracle Society will never…die…not as long as my ambitions…continue on…'that means that I either didn't kill the real leader of the Dark Oracle…or they'll find someone else to lead them…"

Tenten was in slight shock; she remembered watching Neji's battle with Kiran and had to agree with Neji on this. She frowned even more but immediately reached out to her son as suddenly the little boy had begun crying. Neji frowned when the boy did cry, but knew that it was probably a hunger cry so he quickly gave Toshirou to his mother to deal with.

Tenten adjusted the nightgown that Neji had personally placed on her, when they had brought her into the house that Inari had the other villagers set up for them, during the entire operation to get Tenten out of there, and gently brought her son to her breast. The child almost immediately took to nursing, and Tenten watched him carefully. Neji got up and walked over to the window, a little edgy with watching his son nursing and this entire parenthood thing too.

Tenten looked over to Neji and said, "If there's a war out there Neji, then as Konohagakure Shinobi, we should know what we have to do, we will have to fight along side our Hokage to stop this threat…we can't just sit idly by and hope they will just…" Tenten didn't get to finish because Neji had come over to her bedside pretty fast and was kissing her passionately on the mouth. Tenten gasped softly but immediately kissed her Hyuuga man back.

Neji then said after pulling back after a few more minutes of passionate kissing, "I know Tenten, we will have to fight…many might die, but we can't just run away with our tails between our legs." "Once we return to Konohagakure, I want the two of us to get married immediately, and then we will go beyond that point from there and see what the future holds."

Tenten listened to her fiancée's words and agreed silently and turned to continue concentrating on nursing their son. Neji smiled briefly at her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders and sat down on the bed beside her. Neji and Tenten knew that the future looked grim and almost hopeless, but this would not stop them from being happy. They had fought for too long to gain their happiness, and this was only the beginning of a long life of things to come.

* * *

**Two Weeks Later: **

"Do you Neji, of the Side Branch of the Hyuuga Clan, take this kunoichi, Tenten of Konohagakure, as your wife, to love and cherish, in sickness and in health and until death takes you both away?" asked Naruto who was doing the marriage ceremony which had been a quiet one, only Neji's uncle, cousins and both Neji's and Tenten's closest friends had been allowed to come to the marriage ceremony, a week later after the happy yet tired couple had returned with their healthy baby boy in their arms.

Naruto was wearing his Hokage robes for the whole entire ceremony thing, which Naruto had whined would be boring to do, but knew he as the Hokage had to do things like this. And also was more then happy to marry the couple off, even though outside of Konoha, things were about to heat up and get worse.

Neji, dressed in a plain silver male type kimono outfit, his hair pulled back in also a simple ponytail nodded his head, as he had been trying to form the words, "I do take Tenten to be my wife, until death takes me away from her…" He stared lovingly into Tenten's eyes as he said those words before looking back to Naruto.

Naruto gave a bored sigh as he waited before finally turning to Tenten, "And do you Tenten, take Neji of the Side Branch of the Hyuuga Clan, and Shinobi of Konohagakure as your husband to love and cherish, in sickness and in health and until death takes you both away?"

Tenten was dressed in also silver, seeing she wanted to match Neji's outfit, but she was wearing a very simple yet flattering wedding kimono. Her hair had been let down, which was extremely rare to see Tenten without her usual double bun hair style, that made her look like a panda bear.

Tenten looked briefly at the entire place where the ceremony had been, which happened to be on the roof of the Hokage office, in front of Hokage Mountain, they had decided this would be the best place to have their small wedding ceremony. She saw Toshirou being held in his god mother's arms as she stood beside Lee, who was dressed in a plain green suit kimono.

Neji had no choice in the matter, he had made Lee his best man and told him to be on his best behaviour on pain of them both kicking Lee's butt from here to Kumogakure. Tenten smiled softly at her best friend and fiancée, who were to get married the following month apparently. She then turned and saw Sakura and Temari there as well as the rest of the Konoha 11 who had managed to make it to their ceremony.

There was a pregnant pause before Tenten turned back and stared lovingly into her soon to be husband's ivory eyes and she finally said, "I Tenten, kunoichi of Konohagakure, do swear to take Neji of the Hyuuga Clan to be my husband, to cherish him, to love him in any and everyway possible, nothing will stop me from loving him, and until death takes both of us away."

Tenten was on the verge of tears after saying this. She was just so happy, her heart was soaring, this was a fantasy of hers coming true in a way. She was marrying the man who had always been at her side since they had all become Genin, and she had already started a family with him.

Naruto then had them exchange rings and then Naruto finally said, "With the power invested in me as the 6th Hokage of Konohagakure, may the will of fire continue on in this village, I now pronounce you husband and wife…" He then waggled his eyebrows comically at Neji and Tenten, as he said, "You can kiss her now Neji." This brought the two of them doing their best not to laugh at how comically perverse Naruto was trying to be in a serious ceremony such as this.

Neji pulled her into his embrace and they kissed gently right in front of everyone. There was a loud cheer, that Tenten could have sworn came from Lee and Kiba, and quiet applause. Tenten was about to pull away but Neji tightened his embrace around her and kissed her harder, showing the world that he really did love this girl, he refused to hide it anymore.

Tenten's heart soared even more as she also felt her knees weaken a little at the soulful, toe curling, heart melting kiss Neji was giving her. She attempted to return the kiss before finally the two of them came up for air.

Tenten didn't hear Naruto saying these words, "May I present to all of you, Mr and Mrs Neji Hyuuga…" She had already knew she would be a Hyuuga the day they had first made love to each other, that had brought them such a beautiful little boy to a world that was on the verge of war once again.

Neji looked at her for a moment and heard her whispering,

"Aishteru Neji-Kun…"

Neji smiled and kissed her on the cheek as he turned and took her arm to lead her away down the aisle quietly, he whispered back as they walked,

"Aishteru Tenten…my beloved heavenly one."

They knew they would love each other until time ended or until death did indeed take them to the next life. But even as a war was on the verge of breaking out, the two lovers knew that their love for each other was undying and this would always be eternal no matter what the future held.

**The End?**

**To be continued in the Gaara X OC story called Loving the Enemy)**


End file.
